Adafruit To Teach Electronics Through Puppets In New Kids Show 68
coop0030 writes "Wired has an article up about how Adafruit, the kit-based electronics retailer and promoter of hobbyist engineering, is aiming to teach electronics to a younger demographic. So young that they're enlisting the help of puppets. Their new online show, titled Circuit Playground, will teach the essentials of electronics and circuitry to children through kid-friendly dolls with names like Cappy the Capacitor and Hans the 555 Timer Chip. Limor 'Ladyada' Fried, Adafruit's founder and chief engineer (and 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year), will host the episodes, with her team assisting with onscreen and puppeteering duties. Episodes will premiere this March, and Fried holds hope for them to help inspire the next generation of designers and builders."
Finally! (Score:1)
Can't wait for the one about magnetics!
Any link to the puppet show from Adafruit ? (Score:2)
I can't find any link at Adafruit's site for the puppet shows.
Can anyone kindly share the links?
Thank you !!
Re:Finally? No. This is old news in a new format. (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you remember the Steve Jobs puppet they had that kept re-inventing things that were already invented?
Sesame Street has been educating kids about tech for many years now.
Re:BAD IDEA (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh get a grip. Stick to picofarads and low voltage and low amperage and there's no danger.
You can get into trouble with batteries and wire if you try hard enough.
Many of us were building circuits when we were single digit in age.
I applaud Ladyada. I think what she's doing already (with adafruit) is fantastic. This just adds to my admiration.
Re: (Score:2)
as an example you can put an adult male into cardiac arrest with a 9 volt battery if you get blood contact.
seriously a nice chunky INSULATED screwdriver will work for anything in the pico/nano farad range you are more likely to "pop" a cap by putting it in a circuit backwards than get a dangerous shock from a charged cap.
Re: (Score:2)
get thee to allaboutcircuits.com and read my friend please note your maths must be This High to proceed past the DC book
Starring Mr Lizard (Score:3)
We're gonna need another Timmy!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Suggested Character:Transistor/cross dressing nun (Score:4, Funny)
Onto a more serious note; it's always great to see somebody bring in some new ideas to bring electronics to kids.
It will be very interesting to see how the concepts are brought across using puppets. I would have liked to see some examples before the story went live.
The big issue that I always find is that when somebody comes up with a new idea for teaching concepts, they can illustrate basic concepts very effectively but get bogged down when the material becomes deeper and not so readily obvious.
Having said that, if they have a character for a 555, maybe they have a good formula!
myke
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, if all you think the 555 can do is oscillate, then you're in for a pleasant surprise.
There are a lot of really amazing things you can do with it - just doing a quick search, take a look HERE. [555-timer-circuits.com]
myke
Re: (Score:3)
You don't even want to know what she has planned for Power Supplies (AC/DC, AC/AC, and DC/DC)!
Hans the 555 Timer Chip??? (Score:1, Troll)
That sounds about as exciting as watching grass die. No offense meant here, I get the reference to the designer and all, thats cool. But I don'' see how this is going to excite kids. Kid sees "Hans the 555 timer chip". Kid thinks: "Whats a timer chip?" and unless that is answered in a very obvious way EVERY TIME the character is shown, it'll be lost.
Re:Hans the 555 Timer Chip??? (Score:4, Insightful)
it is possible to even make a sponge (bob) exciting and fun for kids :)
Re: (Score:2)
You make a good point. And to the person who modded my post TROLL... I am NOT trolling. Its a genuine opinion with a real reason behind it.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm sure Hans will be just as exciting as any Old Timer is expected to be.
Re: (Score:1)
Irving the IRFZ44V!
Charlie the choke!
Indiana the husky inductor who has to watch out for core saturation!
timing chip? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
By the way, I'm fairly certain a timing chip (on a motherboard at least) sets and controls frequencies for every various chip on the board. So if your timing chip sucks, you can't overclock very well.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
thus saith the Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer [wikipedia.org]
the tl,dr version is a 555 is a bog standard way to generate a timing pulse since it is one of those very stable designs (put it into a circuit with X values and you will get pulses at Y hertz) It of course can be used for a few other things also
Punch and Judy (Score:1)
Let me guess, the new and improved version of Punch and Judy will be Apple and Samsung?
Re: (Score:2)
Boris the Program Monitor (USSR space race surplus):
In Soviet Russia, Program Monitors Boris!
(sorry - that was just too good a fed line...)
Re: (Score:1)
Biploar Hal, your NPN pal?
Some more elderly characters for the cast... (Score:1)
Fat Agnes, Paula, Gary The Gate Array, and Sid.
and more..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_custom_chips
There's something funny ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I know this is crazy talk — especially for /.
Couldn't agree more - since most folks can't even be bothered to RTFA, do you *really* expect them to wait to WTFE?
Re: (Score:3)
Kids are odd creatures. They often have short attention spans, but they can watch the same thing (literally) thousands of times. If the kid learns something from it that is pretty awesome.
Does it come with a magnifying glass? (Score:2)
I started trying to teach my kid something about electronics the other day. I tore apart some broken dongle or other to show him what capacitors and stuff look like. But I didn't recognize any of the multicolored 1 mm sq. little bits of stuff stuck to the board.
So I tore apart some broken dongle or other from 10 years ago to show him what capacitors and stuff look like, and the little multicolored bits were about 3 mm sq. Not much of an improvement. I'm almost positive I probably identified one of the b