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Electronics/Electric Kit for 9-year old

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by alevinemi, May 28, 2011.

  1. alevinemi

    alevinemi Junior Member

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    I was hoping with so many amateur electricians on this site, that someone could give me some advice on a gift for my 9-year old.

    I want an electronics kit and/or books that go a little beyond the typical "stick wire here get radio" type of thing. Something that actually teaches circuits, voltage, motor, perhaps electromagnets etc...

    My 9 year old is a bright geekly-type, so can probably handle material written at the middle school level as long as it only has basic math - no Algebra yet. I'm hoping to get 30 hours of educatainment out of it.

    Any advice?
     
    #1 alevinemi, May 28, 2011
  2. davesrose

    davesrose Active Member

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    Well from what I remember when I was a kid, the "build your own radio kits" from Radio Shack are one of the best begining science things to start off with (it doesn't have a motor, but it does go over electromagnetism pretty well). I remember that my parents then got me a chemistry set...which wound up being pretty limited for truely practical experiments. I don't know what current day kits are like, but they probably have minimal instructions these days. I would think that's an even better reason for finding out which component is which via the internet. I know some poo poo internet sources, but I've found for the more ecclectic science topics, web sources aren't actually that bad for getting a survey.
     
    #2 davesrose, May 28, 2011
  3. ken1784

    ken1784 SuperMID designer

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    I wish I could get the mbed micro controller when I was a child.

    Ken@Japan

     
    #3 ken1784, May 28, 2011
  4. Rocco42

    Rocco42 Member

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    Go get a copy of Nuts and Volts magazine. There are ads for a few companies that make these "beginner" kits. I forgot the name of them, and don't have a copy here to reference them for you, but I do know that they exist.
     
    #4 Rocco42, May 29, 2011
  5. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    #5 jdenenberg, May 29, 2011
    2 people like this.
  6. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    #6 qbee42, May 29, 2011
  7. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

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    Take a look at the Arduino ([FONT=&quot]Arduino - HomePage[/FONT]) open source system. It's inexpensive (~$50 to get started), all software (mostly Java) is free, hundreds of inexpensive add-on HW/SW packages (called shields) and my students love it.

    JeffD
     
    #7 jdenenberg, May 29, 2011
    1 person likes this.
  8. Corwyn

    Corwyn Energy Curmudgeon

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    #8 Corwyn, May 29, 2011
  9. ken1784

    ken1784 SuperMID designer

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    I know Arduino very well, and I have been working my own designed circuit using AVR controller.
    I'm sure 4-year old can run "hello world" program on the mbed, but I think it is very difficult to run a program on Arduino by 4-year old.

    Ken@Japan
     
    #9 ken1784, May 30, 2011
  10. alevinemi

    alevinemi Junior Member

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    Thanks all for the advice - some good ones, but in the end, I went with the electro-gadget 200:

    Edu Science Electro-Gadget 200 - Toys R Us - Toys "R" Us

    Convenient snap-on connections for tiny people. The other kits were heavy on ICs, which seemed a bit advanced at this point - right now, an IC would be an incomprehensible black box that does cool stuff. Maybe after he finishes the 200 experiments in this one, he'll be ready for some of the more advanced kits (like that radio shack one and arduino seemed cool...).
     
    #10 alevinemi, May 30, 2011
  11. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    You can also check out MadLab Electronic Kits in the future... A lot of small, focused kits with some background, circuit diagrams included, etc. they're great if you can sit with your kid and go over some of the concepts with him!
     
    #11 eagle33199, May 31, 2011
  12. Rocco42

    Rocco42 Member

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    #12 Rocco42, Jun 1, 2011
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