Electronics books for kids - ideas?
Hi folks
In the 1970s, there were loads of 'teach yourself' electronics books for kids. I remember the Ladybird series in particular were great, although they're more than a bit dated now.
My oldest nephew is ten. I'm making him a small electronics kit (with wooden breadboard!), but I'd like a guide book to go with it.
Any recommendations? I've searched high and low, and can't find the sort of book I used to have - they all seem very 'dumbed down' today, with no real engagement with components, etc.
Perhaps I'm just getting old :-(
Thanks in advance
NC
In the 1970s, there were loads of 'teach yourself' electronics books for kids. I remember the Ladybird series in particular were great, although they're more than a bit dated now.
My oldest nephew is ten. I'm making him a small electronics kit (with wooden breadboard!), but I'd like a guide book to go with it.
Any recommendations? I've searched high and low, and can't find the sort of book I used to have - they all seem very 'dumbed down' today, with no real engagement with components, etc.
Perhaps I'm just getting old :-(
Thanks in advance
NC
Post edited by RST#08 on
Comments
"Simple Electronics" ... a 50p Ladybird book ... got me started at the age of 6 :)
Still have it somewhere, bit tattered!
Although, as for books today... no idea - sorry!
Colin.
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Thanks for your suggestion...
NC
By the time you get to modern stuff (VLSI integrated circuits) you're kind of getting away from basic electronics anyway.
What my search has revealed, though, is quite sad. I've spend hours looking around many large bookstores (and I live in a large city), and I've been disappointed at the quality of 'junior science' books. It is a worry that 'pre-GCSE' level kids have so little exposure to practical electronics in particular, and 'engineering' in general. Whilst I appreciate that there are cultural/pedagogic (and hence political) reasons for this, it makes me wonder if the "Sinclairs and Dysons" of the future will be able to cultivate for themselves a youthful interest in technology.
Think it is best used with a breadboard.
The problem is that electronics, radio building etc is a pastime that no-one does anymore, its cheaper and a lot less hassle to buy ready made from the far east off the internet.
http://www.find-book.co.uk/
also might be of help if you find a book or have an isbn.. I use them a fair bit.
I do remember buying / building a kit for like a turtle off one of the speccy mags, never finished it.. wonder if others did.hehe
speaking of which as I've got older I've noticed the stuff we had as kids learning wise has dumbed down or so it seems. I dunno 100% I haven't got kids, just seems like it.
get him a copy of sinclair's... make a chip or the limited matty smith version
sinclair's make a "f'in" chip (butty)
(revenge for the JSW gag in micromen :) )
there is about 438275347589347543857834534 copies of it on ebay (normally bundled with scrabble and the horizons tape)... apparently all 3 are "RARE games" along side some cheeky sod who was trying to flog bobble bubble demo as the FULL game
Well, I don't think that true. People who want to tinker will tinker. People who don't won't - and the people who don't want to make up the vast majority of the population and always have done. Tinkering with electronics was never popular. In the 80s, there were perhaps half a dozen kids out of my school of 600 who knew how to use a soldering iron properly.
If anything, tinkering has got a lot more accessible today - it's easier to get hold of components - even Farnell and RS will sell to anyone these days (you used to have to be a trade customer to use them in the past, but now they'll happily take anyone's sales over the internet so long as you spend ?20 - and they have HUGE catalogues), there are many more interesting components that are cheap, microcontrollers that don't need fancy programming hardware, all that kind of thing. For the advanced tinkerer, you can now get four and six layer PCBs made up at an affordable price! 25 years ago you had to be a company with a decent turnover to have the budget to get a 4 layer custom PCB made.
Ebay makes it easy to get hold of some really good test equipment. Recently I got a top quality Tektronix digital capture storage scope for ?200, something that would have probably cost over ?5000 when it was new in the mid 90s. Getting a decent scope 25 years ago was very difficult because, well, they cost four or five figures. Oh, on the subject of ebay, you can get hold of all sorts of unusual electronic components. I have a box of Russian nixie tubes on my shelf I picked up cheap on ebay. The former Soviet Union kept producing lots of weird and wonderful stuff that there was never the demand for (their command economy was too cumbersome to turn production off, they were still mass manufacturing nixie tubes 20 years after they became obsolete) so there's lots of really interesting stuff to tinker with that you can get via ebay.
Certainly, radio hams have declined, but it's hardly surprising - there are strict rules, exams on inflexible dates, and a whole load of bureaucratic bother. People don't want to do bureaucratic bother for fun. Many radio hams were into radio not because of the electronics, but the talking to other people at a distance. You can do that on the internet now with no bureaucratic bother. Those who are into radio because of the tinkering will still be into radio, but these people as far as I've been able to make out, are the minority of radio hams. I'll never bother with amateur radio because of the bureaucracy, I can have much more fun tinkering with non-radio projects. And I think that goes for a lot of electronics tinkerers.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-FPGA-Design-Architecture-Implementation/dp/0470054379/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258467432&sr=8-3
But don't forget that you already have the basic knowledge to build on, probably gained by reading the books we are discussing here.
What I am thinking about is that if you look at the shelves in Smiths, 20 years ago there would have been a few electronics hobby mags to read and to learn from, not so many now. I recall Maplin had their own magazine which was basically a glossy advert for their products.
In the early days, say the 40's and 50's (not that I am that old!) a radio set was an expensive item for a household to buy. Building your own was an attractive option. Now they are given away.
It was the same with TV's, my Grandfather made the first set in his street and all the neighbours came round to watch the coronation. (In true hobby style he never got around to building a case for it)
I've built a few nixie clocks over the years, very cool! But would not suggest a ten year old attempt it!
I never quite got ham radio, as you say, a lot of regulations and from the little bits I have heard it was a load of static and people talking about nothing for no reason and then having to write down the details in a little book.
But each to their own.