Building a terrarium out of plexiglass and silicon sealant is a fun project for multi age groups. The older kids can do interesting math projects like "calculate the volume of the aquarium" or "calculate the total cost of parts cut at the hardware store". Then both groups can go out into a park or wilderness area and collect insects, moss, plants, soil, rocks and amphibians to put in the terrarium after it's built. You can collect these in mason jars or recycled bottles with holes poked in the lids (when necessary). If you have a microscope or handheld lens you can look at pond water or found objects to observe what is hidden to the naked eye. Teaching kids how to do field reports and write their observations, make drawing, etc. The older kids can give lessons and teach the younger ones.
Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
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Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#42Building a terrarium out of plexiglass and silicon sealant is a fun project for multi age groups. The older kids can do interesting math projects like "calculate the volume of the aquarium" or "calculate the total cost of parts cut at the hardware store". Then both groups can go out into a park or wilderness area and collect insects, moss, plants, soil, rocks and amphibians to put in the terrarium after it's built. Y…
> If you have a microscope or handheld lens you can look at pond water or found objects to observe what is hidden to the naked eye.
Decent electronic field microscopes are only like $30-40 on Amazon. They broadcast a Wifi network that you connect to on your phone and use an app to view the image, take photos, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#43YMMV: kids are not surprised by computers anymore since they are pervasive in their lifes. A 3D printer is amazing but it could be really slow I would prefer robots/cars ala Logo turtle. A friend of mine played with Maley Makey. Beyond computers chemistry, physics, magic...
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can teach a 4 year old chess I’ve done it many times (patiently)
I disagree. You can teach a 4-year-old the moves each chess piece can make, but expecting them to absorb strategy, or to visualise 2+ moves into the future is an unfair burden. The following are much better perfect information games for kids. I play each with my kids and have listed the age when they were able to strategise 2+ moves ahead: - Gobblet Gobblers (4) - Onitama (6) - Hive (8)
Gobblet is a great game, ages 4- seems right. My 9 and 11 year olds still play occasionally.
Hive v Onitama, is Hive better for older kids or just more complex?
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#45The 4 year olds may be too young,but I am a big fan of teaching how we got here. I gave a 6 session course to a homeschool coop on the History of Technology starting from stones and moving through bronze age, iron age, steam power, electricity, telegraph demo (big hit) radio and TV and early computers. (I think Engineering schools should have a course on tech history)
Sounds super interesting. Any notes or slides or anything you can share?
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#46What's fun, and very interesting for both children and adults, is going zero tech. In fact, go back to prehistory. You start with the different properties of stones. If you have flint, obsidian, granite, quartzite, gypsum, and calcite in your region -- find them together. If not, buy them. Teach your kids about their different properties, and how they were used to make hand tools. Then, the different properties of wo…
> Beware mushrooms unless you really know what you're doing.
If you know what you're doing, you should know that children generally shouldn't eat wild mushrooms - they're hard to digest.
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#47What's fun, and very interesting for both children and adults, is going zero tech. In fact, go back to prehistory. You start with the different properties of stones. If you have flint, obsidian, granite, quartzite, gypsum, and calcite in your region -- find them together. If not, buy them. Teach your kids about their different properties, and how they were used to make hand tools. Then, the different properties of wo…
> Beware mushrooms unless you really know what you're doing. If you know what you're doing, you should know that children generally shouldn't eat wild mushrooms - they're hard to digest.
I live in a pretty rural place, and around here they sell wild mushrooms in supermarkets. Sometimes the mighty porcini (boletus sp.) is available -- but there are frequently chanterelles and morels available, and sometimes other types. Kids and even toddlers eat them all the time, though admittedly they're usually well cooked, or dried and then cooked, or even cooked and then pureed.
I don't recommend doing it with kids (or at least eating them with kids) but mushroom foraging is a lot of fun.
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#48How about hooking a camera up as input to some generative art algorithms in p5.js, Processing, or similar. Kids move/dance in front of the camera and the results are projected on an adjacent screen in realtime. Then you can save the pieces they generate and have a few of them printed!
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#49If they haven't seen a 3D printer or CNC mill work before, that might be a good demo for preschool, if you can make something really fast on it, that they can see evolve over a few minutes.
So they can see it, maybe ask teacher in advance whether they can stand around the table you've set up on, or what their seating arrangement is (on carpeted floor, movable low chairs, circle of chairs, array of desks, etc.).
Beware that 3D printers can aggravate respiratory problems, so maybe enclosed and ventilation hose to window. With CNC, you have to watch out for metal filings that can poke kids (and get transferred to eyes, etc.), or maybe short later electronics.
Bonus if you have time to show them one predetermined object, then go to make another object that has some choice for them in the design. Maybe you're making a cartoon character figure on a large 3D modeling thing (very quickly, speedrunning it) and you can ask them about the expression and things. Or maybe something for their teacher's, like a 3D "nameplate" for their desk, with some options for customization kids can choose, like font or decorations you put on it. (Unfortunately, probably can't do one of the kids' names, unless you brought enough print time for everyone, but having them make a personalized gift for their shared non-kid is good.) Try to think of things they can't do with poster paint, glue, and macaroni, without discouraging those media.
Re: Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
#50If you can obtain a microscope with a projector/display they can all see at once, and have a bunch of familiar sample objects that get non-intuitive under the microscope, they might really like that. Especially if you can do it with progressive wide range of magnification.
For each sample, you could show it to them by eye, ask them what it is, maybe pass it to one of them, ask them what it is (including everyone shouting out the answer, like it's a game, depending on age). Then you show them on lowest magnification. Then you increase magnification. This might be new to them and break their brains in a good way.
This can get into vague overview about how big things are made up of smaller things, that look different when you look closely.
You can also talk about seeing more detail of things when you're close to them than when you're far away, which is more intuitive, though I don't know whether this will confuse them about distance and too much about optics at once.
Once they are starting to get magnification, you can also put a sample unknown to them under max magnification, so they can only see the highly magnified display of it, and make a guessing game about what it is. Progressively lower magnification, whether or not someone guesses right, so they see that progression regardless, and it also makes a reveal of the answer to the game.