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About the Course
Gadget Factory is designed to be a fun, one-day introduction to electronics. The students will build a number of simple electronic circuits on a small breadboard.
We're trying to get the students to:
- Recognise and draw the symbols for some basic electronic components
- Understand how to convert a schematic to a wired circuit
- Enjoy making some fun gadgets that they can take home!
The Kit List
Student consumables (one per student to take home)
- Resistors : 1 each of 100, 1k, 10k, 100k, 1M
- Capacitors: 1 x 10u
- 1 x BC337 transistor
- 1 x 555 Timer
- 1 x SW-520 vibration switch
- 1 x Small LDR
- 1 x Active buzzer (much taller than passive buzzer)
- 1 x High-intensity 5mm red LED
- 1 x Pushbutton (breadboard-mount)
- 1 x CR2032 cell
- 1 x CR2032 holder
- 1 x Large breadboard
- 1 x Labelled box
- 1 x Worksheet
- 1 x Extension circuit sheet
- 1 x 50cm length each of red and black single-core hookup wire
- 1 x 30cm length each of yellow, orange, blue and green single-core hookup wire
Student non-consumables (one per student, not to take home)
- 1 x Pencil
- 1 x Headphones
Student non-consumables (one per pair, not to take home)
- 1 x Sidecutters
- 1 x Wire strippers
- 1 x Rubber
Other class supplies
- Extra components for extension challenges
- Resistors: 100, 1k, 2k2, 10k, 22k, 47k, 220k (x100)
- Variable resistors: 10k, 100k (x20)
- Capacitors: 100n, 1u, 10u, 220u (x100)
- Passive speaker (! looks similar to active one (but smaller) - x20)
- Extra red LEDs (x20)
- Extra pushbuttons (x20)
- Extra 555s (x20)
Pre-Camp Setup (By Tech Camp)
- Print out labels and attach to boxes
- Print out 1 x Worksheet and 1 x Extension circuit sheet per student
IT Systems Check
- Student logins work for this website
- Sound and USB ports functional on computers
- All videos work in the student guide
- Check following websites are available:
- courses.techcamp.org.uk
Preparing Yourself
Like any practical course you'll find this much easier to teach if you have run through it yourself as completely as possible first. Even if you're experienced with electronics this will allow you to find out which parts of the course are tricky. Also, when we're running a course for the first few times there may be the occasional mistake or parts of instructions that are not clear and this is a great way of identifying them.
As a minimum, you'll need to:
- Run through this guide completely and be comfortable with it
- Run through the student's guide completely, building each of the basic circuits
- Ideally try at least one of the extension challenges if you still have time
As the start of this course is tutor-led you'll also need to run through your delivery of the course a couple of times - ideally out loud, but at least in your head. If you are working with more than one tutor, you will want to decide between yourselves how to split the tasks/explanations in this initial part of the lesson.
Pre-course Setup
For this course, you need to be super-organised. Before the session you need to lay out all the component bags on tables in a 'teacher only' area and make sure you know what they all are. The students should not be allowed to get components themselves as this will cause general chaos and lead to components going missing.
Most components will be handed out during the session time itself, but you will want to put the following on their desks before they arrive:
- One pair of side cutters
- One pair of wire strippers
- One box/bag for their components
- 1 x blank worksheet
- 1 x pencil
- 1 x eraser
You will also want to pre-cut 50cm lengths of red and black hookup wire (one for each student) and 30cm lengths of yellow, orange, blue, and green hookup wire (again, one for each student). You will hand these out during the session but pre-cutting them into the long pieces will save time during the session.
Rules for Students
- Take your time - the more you understand, the easier you'll find it to complete subsequent challenges.
- If something doesn't work, check through the wiring (twice) and then get a friend to check as well before asking your tutor!
- Don't touch the components on the tutor tables,
- Keep your desk space tidy. Components that are not being used should be kept in their bag/box, particularly at the end of each session. If you lose something, you'll need to find it!
Guidelines for Tutors
- Encourage the students to take their time and re-watch the introductory videos if needed - the better they understand how to systematically convert a schematic to a wired circuit, the more success they will experience and the more fun they will have.
- Encourage the students to always check their wiring a couple of times if it doesn't work and then get a friend to check it as well. This will make your life much easier!
- Students should generally not get 'extra' components
- If students tell you that they have lost something, make them find it - it will probably be on the floor, under a piece of paper/keyboard, etc
- If students get onto doing extension circuits they will need to ask you for more components. We do not imagine that all students will finish all of these (or perhaps even start them) so you will not need to give them all of the extension components to take home.
- Keep an eye out on the number of components that you have left. You should have plenty for the courses but think ahead and flag up with the Technical Manager if you think you might run short of anything (particularly if you are teaching the course over multiple weeks)
Extra really helpful hints for a smooth course:
- The cutting of the wires is an important step - make sure they cut them to the right length with the right amount stripped off each end. If wires are too long they will come out easily. If they are too short, they will not reach. If the wrong amount is stripped off each wire they will not stay in the breadboards and/or will be liable to short out.
- The cutting of the component leads is an important step. They are likely to come out very easily if not trimmed.
- The use of correct colours (red/black for +/-) should be enforced. It greatly helps troubleshooting and also is good practice. Other coloured wires should ideally only be the same colour if they are physically connected. Again this makes troubleshooting much easier.
- If students appear not to understand, make sure that they re-watch videos if needed. It is very hard to do this course if they don't understand the fundamentals of breadboards and how to wire circuits from a schematic.
Running the Session
- Tutors introduce themselves / kids introduce themselves
- Optional welcome activity
- Explain what they will cover in Gadget Factory - they will learn about:
- How common electronic components work
- How to read a circuit diagram and convert to a working circuit
- Along the way they'll make some fun gadgets (buzzers, lights, flashing lights and alarms)
- If time they can make some more advanced extension circuits
- Give them these Important Tips:
- It's really important to understand how to wire up your own circuit (we only give a wiring diagram for the first couple) so make sure you listen carefully when watching the short introductory videos. If needed, pause and rewind until you understand and of course ask your tutor if anything is unclear.
- If anything doesn't work, check your wiring carefully (twice) and then ask a friend to help you check before asking a tutor. 99% of the time it will be a wiring problem - either wires not put in, wires put in the wrong place, components connecting that shouldn't be, or components around the wrong way.
- Give out the breadboards and as you do this, run through explanation of breadboard (see video below but this should be done in person and students should annotate their breadboard picture on the worksheet with lines showing where the tracks are to help them remember)
- Give out the components on the top half of the worksheet one by one and explain what they do as you hand them out. Refer to the video below - you need to give them the information that this video contains but you won't need to explain how to draw the symbols as they'll do this in the next step below. Note that there are four different resistors to hand out (100 ohm, 1k, 10k, 100k)
- Show the students the image below and get them to copy the symbols/text etc onto their worksheets. (They should also add in the resistor values)
- Give out the components on the bottom half of the worksheet as well and explain what they do (again see the video below for reference)
- Show the students the image below and get them to copy again onto their worksheet.
- Hand out the long lengths of wire and demonstrate how to cut them into 7cm lengths and strip 5mm off each end (using photo of one on the worksheet as a guide). They should get at least 7 red and black jumper wires from their 50cm pieces, and 4 of each of the other colours.
- Get them to cut the leads of the transistor, capacitor, and LEDs to around 10mm each, if possible leaving the longer leg of any polarised components just slightly longer. Do the same with the resistors after bending their legs (close to the body) at 90 degrees. There are 1:1 scale pictures of sample components on the worksheet to use as a guide
- Explain that they when they finish, they will then need to now run through their own guides, listening carefully to instructions, drawing the schematics on their worksheet, building the circuits, and showing them to you to get stamped-off
- Run through the rules!:
- Take your time - the more you understand, the easier you'll find it to complete subsequent challenges.
- If something doesn't work, check through the wiring (twice) and then get a friend to check as well before asking your tutor!
- Don't touch the components on the tutor tables.
- Keep your desk space tidy. Components that are not being used should be kept in their bag/box, particularly at the end of each session. If you lose something, you'll need to find it!
- Leave the following picture up on the screen so the students can copy each circuit as they make them. For most of them there is a version on the student guide but sometimes (with the video steps) it might be easier for them to see these versions as they're clearer.
Here's the link for the student guide ...
Extension Challenges
There is an 'extension' sheet that the students can work through. They should choose one circuit at a time to make, ask you for the extra components that are not in their set already and then make it up. There is one spare box on their worksheet to fill in with the circuit diagram for their first extension challenge. The students can take the extension challenge sheet home with them though (whether or not they manage to complete any or all of them) but the only students who will take any of these extra components home will be the ones who have used them to make one (or more) of these extension challenges during the session.
Helpful Hints
- The '8 ohm' speaker referred to on this sheet is different from the buzzer they have already, even though it looks similar.
- For the 'toy organ' don't give them all the switches - it is easier to wire up leaving these out of the circuit and just use a single trailing jumper wire as a 'probe' to touch to the ends of the resistors to make the sounds. For this challenge, it is best to mount the resistors vertically, so show them how to do this - they will need to trim one leg to 5-10mm, bend the other one back around to come out parallel to the first and then trim cut this leg to the same length as the first.
Other Ideas
Have a really fast student who zooms through everything? Here are some other ideas:
- Get them to find out about the resistor colour codes and learn how to use them
- Get them to find out about Morse code
- Look up some other circuits that use a 555 and see if they can build them
Packing Up
Your supplies should always be packed up as neatly as they came! This means:
- Components are in labelled bags, and grouped in bigger bags
- There should be no bags of unsorted components
- Don't put obviously used components (resistors/capacitors with cut leads etc) back into the supply bags - if you find these on the floor just throw them out at the end