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Ideas for school science/electronics expo

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chingyg

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Hey guys, it is national science week in our country in august, being the most academic school in our region we have been tasked to have a science expo aimed mainly at 15year old - grade 9 kids.

There will be various workshops and demonstrations on chemistry physics and maths. Our department has been tasked to host an electronics workshop.

During the expo there a group of 30+- kids will be visiting our workshop at once, will be 1 hour for they to build like a circuit.

And this is where I need help, we would like to let them build something that is simple (15 years old remember) fun, innovative and easy (time restraints) to organize. My superior suggested electronic buzzer but I think it is just too boring.

I am thinking about things like little lie detector that measures skin resistance, or maybe a little metal detector or radio. I am not sure, please help me with some ideas
 
The first science fair project I ever built was a very simple photocell circuit consisting of a CDS photocell, a few transistors and a relay. Considering it was Circa 1960 it was pretty cool and demonstrated how street lights could be turned on at darkness to eliminate the timers they then ran on.

Point here is that it was simple having only a few parts, It actually did something like turn on a flashlight bulb and I could explain its operation so people could understand what it actually did.

Another project involved a CDS photocell where I bounced the light of a flashlight bulb off different colors of construction paper I glued to a wheel. The photocell replaced a resistor in a simple audio oscillator. Different colors placed in front of the light source reflect light differently back to my photocell. The object was to demonstrate how depending on the color light was absorbed or reflected back towards the source.

Just my take but projects like this should be kept simple, they should be easily understood by a layman and finally they should demonstrate or prove something.

Metal detector and radio get a bit complex but skin resistance can be interesting as it can demonstrate electrical shock and especially why high voltage linemen wear special gloves and clothing. Wet skin, dry skin and shock hazards could work I guess. I wouldn't get too complex and keep in mind this needs to be easily understood.

Just My Take
Ron
 
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