Electronics+Group+2008

=Electronics Group 2008=


 * [[image:P1110546.JPG]] || === ===

the first of many tools in their electronics kit!
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Another enthusiastic group of students have begun the **Electronics Course** - this link takes you to Prof Jowett's step-by-step guide to the projects covered in this course. After two sessions of soldering practice, children have spent the last three sessions assembling their workstations and constructing the loop-game circuit.

Students were introduced to a circuit diagram, diodes and resistors and the jobs they perform in an electrical circuit. They spent two sessions building a continuity tester, wiring it up and testing it before soldering. Since they needed the continuity tester provided, to troubleshoot their own, the value of the project became evident. After completing the project, their task was to use their continuity tester to correctly identify pairs of wires, jumbled inside a mystery box, which, with the correct pairing, completed the circuit. ||
 * [[image:P1100332.JPG]] || ==Project 2: A Continuity Tester==



**Project 3: Treasure Hunt!**
The students dismantled a collection of broken toys and equipment, extracting any useful-looking components and motors. They used their continuity testers to test whether the resistors and diodes were in working order and had fun wiring-up some small electric motors.



**Project 4: A Robot with Flashing Eyes.**
Using a cross-wired double continuity circuit, the students built a robot with one red and one green eye. The circuit was activated using the battery packs they had constructed in Project 2.

Project 5: Water tester/Lie detector
This final project introduced the students to a transistor and its job in amplifying a current. Designed to test whether a plant needs watering, the circuit may also be used as a lie detector on the basis that the stress caused by telling a lie causes a liar's palms to sweat! The conductivity of sweaty palms or damp soil between the probes is very weak, so the transistor collects the current flowing between 2 metal probes and amplifies it, before distributing it around the circuit. A second resistor was omitted to maintain the strength of the signal. The brightness of the LED in the circuit indicates the level of moisture. The wetter the soil (or palm), the better the conductivity and the stronger the current. The stronger the current the brighter the light.