Session 2a: My first make

In this session the group were given a tour of the maker lab and the safety rules were explained. We than began our first make: a not gate in a logic circuit:

In the following photo you can see our work space and the tools we had to complete this make:

Tools: 

- Step by step instructions, printed in colour with photos of completed not gate and extension activities.

- Glue gun and glue

- foam/card + craft knife

- Soldering iron and solder

- copper wire

- clippers

- lots of wires with crocodile clips

- battery pack

- various components, such as led lights and switches.

We began the make, carving out a not gate symbol from foam then attaching a blue switch box using the glue gun:

We then used copper wire and soldered this to the blue switch box in to make the electric circuit and the not gate:

Once that was completed we could attach the cables to switches, battery packs and LED light to test the circuit, which worked:

I was asked for my thoughts on the activity, which I will summarise below:

- I have worked with logic circuits a lot while teaching computer science, so I understood how a not gate works and what to expect as the outcome.

- However, I had not created a circuit before, so I found the introduction of the electric circuit confusing.

- But I really enjoyed the make, it made me think far more about how logic circuits work, before this I found basic logic circuits fairly straight forward to teach and learn, this made me consider the physical and real application of logic circuits.

As we had finished the task early, we began the extension activity, which was to create an AND gate. This was not as successful, and after completion, the LED light would not light up:

We needed help to solve this problem, which was a poorly soldered connection in one of the switch boxes (see below):

After this, it worked.

It was quite frustrating when it didn't work, and I imagine this is something which would be amplified with students, who can give up and become defeatist quickly, especially if they don't believe in their own ability and are doing a task/subject they are not comfortable with.

But it was great when it did work an we realised we were victims of some dodgy soldering.