Not quite the same, but if you've a leaf blower, then making a hovercraft with a couple of pool noodles and a circular piece of plywood is pretty cool (and a lot of fun).
Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
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Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#228th grade is old enough to do just about anything. I like to do big memorable projects with my kid where we both have to learn some things along the way. I’d build a go kart at this age, or some other electric motor driven vehicle. I’d think it would span a few months depending on time dedicated. And covers mechanical, fabrication, components and even some programming if you want to tune it yourself.
Also, I like to reinforce the concept of “dreaming it up”, tell my kids to think of a thing to make and we break down the steps we think are needed to build it. At first, it’s like their imagination wasn’t big enough. They’d have an idea and I’d show them how we could build it pretty easily. Now, it’s gotten to where they know the skies the limit and anything of kind of possible so they start big and then work their way back down to a realistic scope of features. All to say, ask your kid what they want to build!
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#23If I had kids, I would probably subscribe to KiwiCo (https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/cp/12-plus-years-old).
Lego?
Unfortunately, my limited (geographically-constrained) contact with my nieces and nephews has severely impacted my ability to influence them towards technology. :(
Exposure is one thing that is helpful, but in the end, you have to find something that your son is so enthralled with that he wants to pursue it on his own. It begins with curiosity about something, of course, but ultimately requires him to develop the skills and then the confidence to where he wants to begin doing things on his own.
The problem is in the things that parents subject their children to that actually drive the children away from those things... like piano lessons! (I say this as a pianist that has taught many children over the years, and it's obvious which kids are being forced.)
What does he like to do?
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#24Buy a Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D printer. They're amazing. Then look at examples of what you can do on Youtube. Amazing! Kids nowadays have it so good.
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#25Sometimes a 13 year old kid just wants to be a kid. I know because I was robbed of that, thanks to the adults in my life growing up. Let your kid discover whatever it is that they are into, on their own.
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#26My father is an electrical engineer. Growing up, he had countless components in the basement, including a whole slew of 7400-series DIP chips, as well as a bunch of (powered) breadboards and spare wire. In highschool I had so so much fun building things from scratch - I recall building a basic adder by drawing out the truth tables and doing boolean algebra to come up with the circuit diagram, eventually evolving it i…
I so miss the basements of my midwest youth and early adulthood. They were the place for projects. I built so much. My west coast home since 2010 doesn't have a basement, and we've not much interior space for projects (esp when you're talking construction, tools, soldering and such). My spouse is stickler about the inside staying nice, too. The garage is the alternative, but it's so inferior. There's a car there, it's cold, etc. Oh for a basement...
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#27Sometimes a 13 year old kid just wants to be a kid. I know because I was robbed of that, thanks to the adults in my life growing up. Let your kid discover whatever it is that they are into, on their own.
Are you saying just let them figure it out on their own?
I prefer to give my kids opportunities in things they wouldn't otherwise have known about, or had the resources to discover. They can then decide if thats something they want to go deeper on.
This notion of "let kids be kids" minimizes their development needs and exposure to important learning experiences.
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#28Around that age I built a trebuchet. Did calculations, got some plywood and building lumber, etc. Had a lot of fun chucking water balloons down a hill.
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#29Adafruit has loads of projects and kits like TV-Be-Gone, Circuit Playground, EdgeBadge and others. They're suitable for a range of ages and experience levels, usually come with lesson materials and are generally pretty affordable.
I believe SparkFun has a similar ecosystem of products and projects as well.
I'm not affiliated with either of these companies.
Re: Ask HN: Great maker projects for 8th grade kids and above?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any solar energy kit you would recommend for a hobbyist without breaking the bank?
The prices change every 5 minutes for sales and such, but there's generally always a ton of 50 cents a watt solar panels on Amazon. Permanent installs that work unattended are slightly scary and have to be done right so something doesn't leak or start a fire, but the portable folding panels are usually similarly cheap. You could get one of those plus a charge controller and LiFePo4 for not too much. Everything still…
Youtubing might be good for initial exploration, stuff maybe like
(beginner-friendly dyi solar)
https://youtu.be/adFGmOlDM-Y