Learn To Solder Camp to be held Saturday August 22, 2015
This year’s Catamount Kids Summer Camp will feature our popular “Learn to Solder” class. The class is open to kids ages 8 and up (Grades 3 and up, through high school).
This class will be split up in two levels. Level 1 will be for first time participants in our Learn to Solder class, while Level 2 will be for students who have attended our Learn to Solder class before, or who have already done some soldering on their own.
Level 1 Project: WeevilEye
For first timers, our soldering project will be the “WeevilEye” kit. This is a good project for those who are just starting out learning to solder. The finished product is a cute little lady bug shaped device with red LED lights for eyes that light up in the dark. The circuit uses a light detector to determine if it’s light or dark in the area.
Using this kit, kids will learn basic through-hole soldering skills, such as: how to hold a soldering iron, how to apply solder, how to heat components without damaging them, how to identify electronic components, how to cut leads, and of course, how to remove a component and correct mistakes!
Level 2 Project Selections
For students who have some some basic soldering skills, we will have various projects for them to select. Each student will get to do one soldering project, and they all get to take their project home at the end of the class.
The kits available for selection include: Decision Maker, Metronome, Electronic Dice, and Simon Says Game.
The Decision Maker is a fun game that is similar to a Magic 8 Ball. You can ask a Yes/No question, push the button on the circuit board, and a red and green LED will flash for a few moments. Finally, either the red or green light will stay illuminated, providing the answer to your question (Yes = green, No = red).
The Metronome is a cool circuit board that flashes a light and produces a tone in time with a beat. You can set the beat by adjusting a dial on the circuit board. This project is fun for musicians, as they will have a working metronome they can use for music practice.
The Electronic Dice is great for playing probability games. When you shake the device, the lights will all flash for a period of time. Finally, some of the lights will stay on. There are 7 lights, and they light up in one of six different patterns, resembling the numbers on a dice. The lights light up in random orders… or do they? You can keep track of several successive rolls to see if there is a pattern, or if it really is random.
The Simon Says game is one of the most popular circuit board selections. This circuit board has four buttons and four lights. It also makes a tone. You have to push the button associated with each light as it lights up. The game gets harder with each round, as you have to remember the entire sequence of lights and push the buttons in the correct order. You’ll have lots of fun testing your memory against your friends’.
Snap Circuits
In addition to our soldering activities, we will spend some time learning basic principles of electricity using Snap Circuits. Snap Circuits are modular pieces that all fit together using snaps. You can piece together parts of circuits like resistors, LEDs, batteries, motors, and buzzers.
We hope you enjoy our Learn to Solder class!
