Recently I've been helping a friend's 11-year-old daughter get started in electronics. The use of a solderless breadboard was counterintuitive to her until I gave her one of these clear-cased versions, available through Solarbotics. As she puts it, "you can see where the metal is."
Posted by Sean Michael Ragan |
Nov 13, 2009 05:44 AM
Education, Electronics, Reviews, Toolbox |
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That's great! You have found a tool that will make learning easier and more enjoyable for her.
I think we should all take someone under our wing and show them how interesting and fun building stuff is, whether it is electronics, something mechanical, art, a sweater or whatever.
Maybe you could start a Mentor-a-Maker program... wait, maybe I should start a Mentor-a-Maker program... :-)
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Hah, I love it. You CAN see where the metal is!
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This is great, they should all be transparent. I remember first time I got one and was trying to figure out "where the metal is". :)
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Awesome. I'm ordering one of these for myself. Thanks Sean.
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More than once I've been frustrated by a solderless breadboard that looked similar to one I was familiar with but had very subtly different configuration.
Especially the power and ground rails.
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I spend a lot of time with people who've never seen a breadboard before, and when I saw those for the first time, I was thrilled. Breadboarding is easy, once you get the hang of it, but it's hardly intuitive. People vary considerably in the time that it takes them to "get it".
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This is very timely! We had an instructable just about ready to go where we add power-indicator LEDs into the body of this breadboard. Just released it now:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bling-out-your-Breadboard-how-to-add-LED-power-in/
Enjoy!
Regards,
Dave
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