Gadgets For a Budding Geek? 372
fprintf writes "As much as I hate to admit it, it looks like my 13-year-old son is following in my footsteps and preferring interesting, science-based toys. In the past he has been really interested in Lava Lamps, Newton's Cradle, and anything magnetic. It seems the knick-knacks that have generated the most interest were small and relatively inexpensive. For example, a small laser pointer keychain I bought him a couple of years ago still provides tons of entertainment. Yesterday I showed him ThinkGeek and he really liked the Levitron. I wanted to ask the Slashdot crowd what were some other really neat, interesting gadgets? Is there anything cool in the under-$50 range that you would like in your stocking this year?"
Condoms (Score:3, Insightful)
If you hate to admit it, live in denial.
How about building/deconstructing? (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I like ThinkGeek, their selection is limited to gadgets. I found that assembling and -- to my parents dismay -- disassembling things are what really grabbed my interest.
I would take a look at the various kits from American Science & Surplus [sciplus.com]. There are a number of other sites (e.g., Carl's Electronics [electronickits.com]) which have even more kits, but I haven't ordered from them so I can't say whether they're worthwhile or not. (These days, most of my toys come from DigiKey [digikey.com], and not in kit form.)
Build his own (Score:2, Insightful)
Cheap magnets (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Lego Mindstorms (Score:2, Insightful)
Does anyone even read the post these days? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bloody hell, do people actually READ the post before commenting? First someone posted a $150 item when he CLEARLY asked for sub $50 ones, and now this! A suggestion for a laser pointer where he said "For example, a small laser pointer keychain I bought him a couple of years ago still provides tons of entertainment. "
*sigh*
Personal experience... (Score:3, Insightful)
The way that you have described your child is about how I would have been described as a young lad. Since you asked...
I was given an erector set, had my parents understood, my use of it would have called for additions to it, but we didn't do things like that much back then. I have found that Lego technic and Mindstorms/robotics sets would have totally caught my attention back then.
In lieu of those, the old Radio Shack electronics experiments kits were 1000s of hours of fun. I did not then fully understand how a radio transmitter worked, but I did understand that it was possible to make one, they were not magic, and the components were not expensive nor complex things. A rudimentary understanding of logic and electronics formed then. It's all like a puzzle. Puzzle solving has rules so all you need to know is the rules and get some practice.
I was also the kid that took everything apart as soon as I got it so I would understand how it worked.
Looking back, anything that helps your kid understand how stuff works is probably a really good bet. Much of what I worked with allowed me to discover things about mechanical motions, electronics, physics, and math... even though I did not understand that is what I was doing at the time.
Magnets, magnifying glasses, telescopes, and some guidance to understand them faster than just playing around and waiting for school will teach him is the best bet.
In this day and age, you might want to let him help you put a computer together, explaining what he is curious about. No time like the present to start him off on that path.
Basically, everything has an explanation. Explain everything he asks about. I remember at the age of 5 asking why traffic lights had shades over them, then answering my question before he could tell me. For anyone that is inquisitive, explanations are as good as anything else can be, especially if you follow up with tools and toys that help him to build on that knowledge.
I've seen toys that allow you to build things like a double helix strand of DNA etc. but without explanation they are puzzles without rules, and those are no good as you can't understand how to play the game.
There is nothing stopping a child from designing a hybrid engine except knowledge and practice. I find that the Lego robotics kits mixed with technic parts allows you to experience hands-on a lot of mechanical systems, and how they produce motions. Not to sell Lego strongly but there are lots of opportunities there. You can build working engines, cranes, there are even ackerman steering parts. They have a lot of specialty parts that give you a lot of room to play and learn. There is eBay and bricklink for finding parts without having to buy whole sets, so support for continued use/learning is good.
If you can explain magnetism to him, you're probably going to be a very good teacher. That one is tough for people at any age. There is invisible stuff that just works... it's like magic.
Re:How about building/deconstructing? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ThinkGeek's marketing emails (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Overly complicated? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"/."liza. (Score:3, Insightful)
Because he waited until his kid was 13 to teach him how to be a geek.
My six year old is pissed I won't let him have his own soldering iron yet. I told him when he can get the spring-post and/or snap terminal circuits built right the first time, then he can solder stuff.
Re:"/."liza. (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't get circuits right the first time, even when I'm being paid to build them. That's what breadboards are for. You build it on the breadboard, go "huh, that's not right," fix it, and then transfer it to soldered perf board. You don't build with solder the first time. If you need it right the first time (because you're fabbing a PCB, for example) then there's hours worth of design review and double checking involved.
If you're worried about letting the magic smoke out... well, you can do that just as easily on a breadboard or spring terminals. Besides, being overly paranoid about the magic smoke is bad for learning. Go buy 100 transistors from digikey ($6 for 2N3904 / 2N3906), a dozen op amps, a couple hundred assorted resistors, etc. Obviously you don't want to teach carelessness, but paranoia about $0.05 components isn't warranted either.
Re:Warning: NSFW link! (Score:5, Insightful)
How about a subscription to Make [makezine.com] or Craft [craftzine.com], backed by your commitment of time and money towards a project per issue?
Re:"/."liza. (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know if it is really a learning experience, the knowledge that fire=bad doesn't help when you just aren't thinking about it.
All you need is that split seccond of mixed signals in motor skills in your brain, to not switch from the note you just wrote with a pencil and the soldering iron you just picked up.
I had to write right handed for a week.
Though really, the main reason I would think of to keep a soldering iron of of a young kid's hand is not personal safety, but avoiding a house fire. That kind of wattage is a lot to entrust to a 6 year old. I think keeping them confined to battery power is a good idea at that stage.
Re:ThinkGeek?? (Score:3, Insightful)
I liked that story about the Commodore 64, and the kid learning to write his first BASIC programs. Now he has a skill that is actually employable (whether you write BASIC, Fortran, C, or VHDL, it's all basically the same). He just needs to keep practicing.
I learned programming on my own without my parents help. I was self-motivated; I don't know why? I guess I just wanted to see what images I could make the Commodore flash up on the screen. Eventually I lost interest in programming, and became more curious how the hardware actually work (how does a SID make sound?), and started devouring all the tech manuals I could find.
The key I think is to instill that same self-motivation/self-learning process to the next generation; how to do that is a mystery. I suspect it requires an innate curiosity instilled from birth.
TRIVIA:
Voyagers 1 and 2 are still alive and in daily communication with NASA: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/profiles_dsn [nasa.gov] .html - Amazing! Who says old 70s tech is not useful? ;-)
Re:"/."liza. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"/."liza. (Score:3, Insightful)
As a father of a 6 year old, that should not be a big concern.
First, you can't do that much damage to the house with a soldering iron. Yes, you can burn your name into a piece of wood / wall / table / etc, but if you have a work room then it's not a big deal.
Second, the parent should be working with the kid when learning and the child can wear gloves to reduce burns. Burning himself is something that he will quickly learn not to do. Yes, there will likely be some slight injury, but nothing that bad. Really, parents need to let the kids try stuff out in a relatively (but not completely) safe environment.
It's like learning to skateboard or ride a bike. They are going to fall down and hurt themselves. So, get them some protective gear to prevent major injury, kiss the boo-boos, and get over it.
Re:ThinkGeek's marketing emails (Score:4, Insightful)
IIRC, you can't make a purchase without setting up an account. On the account setup page is a pretty clear description of their hatred of spam, a link to their privacy policy, and a drop down box in which you can select whether or not you want the newsletter. They lose some points for having it default to YES, but it's not like they tried to hide it either.
And if you're creating an account on any website without checking carefully for defaulted opt-ins, then you have to turn in your geek card.