Electromagnets

After previous unsuccessful attempts to make an electromagnet (and my clear deficiency in electrical experiments), we turned to my first science teacher, Dr. A, for a little help. After finding the right type of wire (who knew there's a lightly insulated wire labeled specifically for making electromagnets - well I didn't, but thankfully Dr. A did!), we quickly had our electromagnet up and running, complete with a light switch that turned the magnet on and off. Jr. Scientist A had fun flipping the switch on, picking up metal objects like paperclips and silverware, and then flipping the switch off and watching them drop. Some paperclips did get temporarily magnetized, making the dropping effect a little less dramatic and the concept a little less clear, but it was still quite a success.

Engineer in training

What a difference a week makes. When we first got the circuit kit a week ago I was a little concerned that it would be too difficult for Jr scientist A to do much on his own (after all, it was marketed for kids twice his age). But after a few days of playing with it, not only is he able to manipulate all the pieces, but he's started making working circuits all on his own (he made the one in the picture without any help - note that he only put down the pieces necessary for the circuit). He's even starting to learn to use the diagrams in the manual to make circuits. He's still having trouble identifying short circuits, but it's been amazing to see how quickly he's picked up everything.

Playing (safely) with electricity

We got Jr. scientist A a snap circuit kit where we can put together different electrical experiments (the different parts of the circuits snap onto a board like Legos). He had lots of fun trying to put every piece of the kit on the board but I was eventually able to convince him to separate out the pieces needed for the "flying saucer" experiment (the little island of circuits in the middle of the board). After a little fiddling we launched the flying saucer by putting it on the motor, getting it going fast, and then cutting the power. The little disk flew up in the sky - it was pretty cool. Bedtime got pushed back quite a bit as we played with the new toy.

Hand-crank flashlight

After getting a hand-crank flashlight at the store, we decided to try to build our own mini version. We used a small electric motor and a couple LEDs. When we manually spun the motor (using it like a little power generator), the LED lit up, much to jr. scientist A's delight. Even cooler, when we had the two LED lights connected with opposite polarity (switching where the positive lead went), one would light up when we spun the motor in one direction and the other would light up when we spun the motor in the opposite direction. Very cool experiment.