February 15 2010

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

February 15 2010

Teaching Link of the Day:
Take Apart Party, or Teaching kids to tinker

The kids had a "talking" book with pen that teaches word preliminary reading techniques like rhyming, initial sounds, etc. It got an odd short where it would randomly start and start playing the games by itself, so I rescued the book from the electronic part. The kids watched me remove screws and slice through the contact pad that connected the plastic electronics part to the book cover. I walked away to get the tape and mend the raw edge of the book and when I returned the boy had the screwdriver and was deep in reassembly. During the course of the next few days, the toy was taken apart and put together countless times. The circuit boards were removed and inspected. Capacitors were removed, buttons dissected. "Mom, can we explore this [part of a light-up bouncy ball]?" They brought out a dead calculator and a display phone. They laid on the floor with a set of small screwdrivers and removed every part from every other part.

Album of the Day:
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa covered by Peter Gabriel, recorded for though not included on his cover album, Scratch My Back.