Career day

[AtomSoft]

In a couple weeks my son has career day and he wants me to come. While i feel honored i have no idea how to talk to kids.

I was wondering if anyone had any insight on this.

Ive decided to create. A custom remote for a toy snake he owns. Its basically a glove with accelerometer and arduino with an ir led. You turn and tilt your hand to control the snake.

Do you think this is too much to explain for kids or can i sufficiently explain in child details the basic setup?

Its a 4th grade class.

Any thoughts would be cool.

 

[DerStrom8]

Whether the kids understand how it works or not, they will be amazed. I remember when I was about your son's age, one of my classmates had his step-dad come in and talk about electronics. At the time I didn't really understand how anything worked, but I was fascinated nonetheless, and I expect his presentation was part of my inspiration to get into electronics.

Keep descriptions simple. For example, "This device reads your body movements and controls the snake". No need to get into detail, and no need to explain exactly how it works. I wouldn't even mention the technical terms ("accelerometer", "LED", "Arduino"), etc.

That's how I would handle it anyway.

 

[AtomSoft]

Thanks! Im going to try and keep it simple and short, but still show how fun and exciting an electronics career can be.

Im a bit nervous as i never talked to more than 3 people at a time but if i can inspire some young people... Might as well try

 

[DerStrom8]

Sounds good! Let us know how it goes!

 

[Inquisitive]

As long as you show excitement and interest in it. I'm sure they will pick up on it. Have fun and relax.

Explain the possibilities are only limited by their imagination. That will get the creative juices flowing.

I'm sure you will knock it out of the ballpark.

 

[Reloadron]

4th grade should be 9 and 10 year old kids. They like visual things at that age. things that do stuff. I really have to agree with Inquisitive and others, get them thinking.

Ron

 

[JimB]

Im a bit nervous as i never talked to more than 3 people at a time

As someone who had a "day job" standing up and talking to people on technical subjects, I offer the following advice:

Know what you want to say, work it out before hand.
Make notes to remind you of the things you want to say, and to keep it in the correct order. Just simple "bullet points".
DO NOT write a speech and read it out from a sheet of paper. This is something which will kill it stone dead!

If you have a practical demonstration, rehears it beforehand, ensure that it works reliably.

You are the expert, your audience knows nothing about the subject.
Keep it simple.
Don't talk in TLAs and jargon.

Look at the audience as much as possible. Don't just keep your head down looking at the notes or the demonstration piece.

Enjoy yourself, learn from the experience.
Engineers who can stand up and make a good presentation are rare. This could help add another string to your bow.

JimB

 

[AtomSoft]

Thanks a ton everyone. Ill be sure to keep it short and fun with a little education. Im not sure of my allotted time but ill find out. Its in 2 weeks i think and i already have a working prototype.

Im planning on teaching my son how to use it good so be can help demonstrate.

Thanks again to all

 

[atferrari]

Make sure that you look at the eyes of each one at least once while you are talking. (It is more or less than using the given name when talking to anyone in every day life) A short question or an unexpected "out of the speech" comment, could trigger even more interest and even comments from them.

Buena suerte.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I remember my big day. Three of us got drafted to be the main speakers for a mini-computer user's group. There was at least 250 people there. We each took an aspect of explaining the file system. I know I did the details. Another talked about programs that were used to re-structure the file system to minimize seeks. I know we also talked about securely erasing files. Scary but fun.

It was a 6.3 filesystem that allowed 50 characters of the ASCII character set. 6 character filenames were packed into 4 bytes.

 

[Vizier87]

Hey Jason, make a little video outta it and let us see anyway.

 

[AtomSoft]

Haha i probably will make a video but posting it.. I dont know lol

 

[DerStrom8]

You'd probably need permission from the teachers and the students' parents if you included them in the video.

 

[AtomSoft]

You are correct. I might just have to blur entire video.. How about an audio recording lol

 

[Pommie]

Can someone explain what Careers day is?

 

[DerStrom8]

You are correct. I might just have to blur entire video.. How about an audio recording lol

I think most of us would be interested in seeing the demonstration though

 

[DerStrom8]

Can someone explain what Careers day is?

Hi Mike,

Career day is a day when children bring one of their parents in with them to school to talk about what they do for a living. It's supposed to give the students a feel for the diversity of job types out there, and perhaps get them interested in a field from an early age.