Projects
A list of potential projects to develop at the Lab.
Convert an antique pupil's desk into a computer workstation
Convert a dentist's chair into a computer workstation
Build an archway of mechanical flowers which open and close
For a Youtube video of the flowers in motion, click here. (Note - only two of the petals are actuated; I'd like to do the rest soon...)
Do -something- with a 48" rear-projection high-definition TV
"Steampunk" a 1994 Plymouth Voyager
Hieroglyphic-ize some PC computer keyboards
(About a dozen keyboards are shelved between the bottles of wine and the two antique dolls. Creepy, I guess, but not much creepier than Dr. Frankenstein's lab, I should hope....)
Create an educational "jigsaw" puzzle to teach the components and interrelationships of different practical "systems"
When I was a child, I recall playing with a toy (thanks mom! :-) that consisted of a wooden board with various shapes carved out of it. Around the carved-out shapes on the board were pictures of a fire station, a police station, a post office, etc. The carved-out pieces had pictures of a fire captain, a police officer, etc, shaped to fit into their respective homes on the board. That way, simply by manually playing with the pieces until they fit, young children develop an intuitive sense of what goes where.
I'd like to do something similar, but with a more technical concept for an older child - parts of an automobile engine in the hood of a car, for example (cylinders, radiator, starter motor, etc) or components of a house (water heater, HVAC, plumbing, foundation, walls, insulation, etc), or components of a computer (motherboard, processor, fan, etc). This way, the introduction to different components of a system, their appearance, names, and roughly how they interrelate could be communicated intuitively at a young age.
I know -I- wish I had a more natural understanding of a host of every-day things!
There -are- sophisticated science models available now, (e.g. FameMaster.com), but I'm not sure there are "intermediate"-level puzzles, for more "everyday" type objects.
Examples of children's toys available today, which I think could be converted / upgraded to convey more "technical" concepts:
- From Puzzling Puzzles
- From Toys-to-You
- and again from Toys-to-You
