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Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

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Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#111

Post by dogline »

I bought a several dozen toy motors off somewhere cheap (~$20), soldered a couple of wires to the terminals, then handled that to the kids with a AA battery. They were able to make the circuit and see something move, and you can talk a little about how a circuits or a motor work, then pivot to how Engineering is about "making things", and this is part of it.

That worked for several classes of 3-6 grade.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#112

Post by pryelluw »

dluan wrote: post #99
pryelluw wrote: post #9

Ive done something similar before. Went with a videogame and showed them how it editing the code changed the game. They started requesting silly changes and went from there. Super fun.

I once went in with something way too ambitious, but this is a fantastic idea and something I'll try next time!

Yeah, the key is to go with something simple. I used a JS game (Phaser.js demo game) and just ran it in the classroom computer browser. Used up 45 minutes of time that went way too fast.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#114

Post by delinka »

cyrix100 wrote: post #92
raisedbyninjas wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For each engineering discipline highlight the relevant part of a drone and how they're responsible. aeronatical: props and flight control mechanical: chassis chemical: batteries civil: constructing buildings that don't fall over when a drone crashes into them? nuclear: nope, refer to civil engineering

There are some interesting applications for drones in the nuclear industry. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/podcasts/monitori...

but no one in the nuclear engineering industry is involved in building any part of a drone

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#115

Post by oconnor663 »

If you want to get into some simple code examples, you can do something where the kids don't need to understand exactly what the code means, but they can still understand what it's doing. For 5th graders, that could be something like "multiply all the numbers between 1 and N together." They could do it themselves for N = 3 or 4, and you could spend a couple minutes making it a race to N = 5 or something. Then you could have the computer do it for N = 1000 and have it fill up the screen with digits, which is kind of an "ooo ahh" moment. You can have the kids try to guess the name of that number. ("What's the largest number you know the name of?" is a fun game. You can take a minute to tell them how Google got its name.) Then you can set N to some value where it actually takes the computer a few seconds to finish working, and the kids can get a sense of how computers are very fast but not infinitely fast.

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#116

Post by pbhjpbhj »

penagwin wrote: post #45
payne92 wrote: post #38

I've done an interactive "do you know how many types of engineers there are?" for this age group that's worked really well. Timeframe: 5-15 minutes "Can anyone name a type of engineer?" and for each shoutout, talk a little about what each does. The guessing keeps everyone's attention. Types: software/computer, electrical, mechanical, chemical, environmental, civil, nuclear, aeronautical, etc. Bonus: bring 2-3 props (…

Oh gosh I just realized I don't have the self control to teach children. Context: I'm a software engineer. All my explanations would be the "realistic" but kinda sarcastic answers. Computer Engineer - Copy's pastes code until it works. Rocket Scientists - Spend 50% of the time designing rockets, and 50% of their time hoping the rocket doesn't explode. Locomotive Engineer - Whoops this isn't a real engineer! /s /s

So what do you call an engineer that designs/optimises/etc. locomotives?

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#117

Post by richardwhiuk »

delinka wrote: post #114
cyrix100 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some interesting applications for drones in the nuclear industry. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/multimedia/podcasts/monitori...

but no one in the nuclear engineering industry is involved in building any part of a drone

Nuclear powered drones? Maybe not yet....

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#118

Post by etrautmann »

With simple hardware from backyard brains you can make one person's movements match someone else by recording EMG on one person and stimulating the other's muscles. It sounds a little ridiculous but can be done with $100 worth of hardware and is a wonderful and surprising demo

Re: Ask HN: I need ideas to impress fifth graders with technology

#120

Post by a1exyz »

My Dad did the coolest one for my fifth grade class that everyone still remembers. He showed us how binary addition in a calculator/computer works by giving us all 0 or 1 notecards. Then since the class is already arranged in a grid, each row is a single digit (8 bits). Then He gave input numbers and we raised our cards according to which bit we were an the person to the left of us.

Honnestly I don't remember the specifics but it was so awesome to see something as abstract as a computer/processor shown to us in a way we could understand and participate in. And the layout of the classroom just happens to be perfect for it.

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