Of iPads, Troublemakers, Breadboards and Resistors
In my Grade 8 Physical Science class, we’ve been working on our study of electronics for the last three weeks.
It’s one of my favorite units because we study currents, circuits, resistors, Ohm’s law, voltage, and batteries. We get our hands dirty with breadboards and make a few LED’s light up.
It’s fun.
In the middle of a chat about resistor strength on a board today, I remarked to a student:
“See, this is why I’m not a fan of the iPad. I can’t take it apart and play with its guts the way I can my Asus netbook. I don’t like closed electronics.”
He answered that he agreed and he had taken apart a busted CD player once and did some soldering and rewiring and actually made it work again.
That made my day.
That is why I believe in what I do as a teacher.
This world will be a better place after I encourage a few more 13 year olds to tinker with breadboards and circuits. Blessed are the tinkerers.
Think Different, indeed.