The Electronic
Jewelry Workshop is a program in which children design and create
their own jewelry, while learning about basic electronics and
electricity. Children use a combination of basic electronics materials
(such as LEDs, batteries, resistors, and switches) and basic craft
materials (such as beads, feathers, and ribbon) to create jewelry
with lights that glow, flash, and change color. The workshop ran
in several after-school and summer camp programs with children
ages 9 to 17 for anywhere from 1 hour to every week for several
hours over six weeks. The primary emphasis in the workshop is
on designing personal ornamentation and thinking about designing,
rather than a scientific exploration of making circuits and understanding
electricity. Still the participants learn about several ideas
through experimentation with:
the
nature of materials:
for example, how light reflects against and refracts through
different objects, and how different translucent, transparent,
and reflective objects create different effects;
the
workings of basic electronics: practical, hands-on
experience with serial and parallel circuits, short-circuiting,
and concepts behind Ohm's law;
and
issues of personal identity: discussing how jewelry
reveals aspects of the wearer.
These investigations
provide a platform for rich, interdisciplinary learning about
ideas and design, materials and mechanics, and electronics and
electricity. Participants work with handouts and mentors to build
single LED, serial and parallel circuits. These experiences are
more like the experience of real adult builders, such as an engineer
or product designer, than might be learned through separately
making a painting, building train out of lego, and hooking a light
bulb up to a battery.
By providing
children with opportunities to design, we allow them to experience
the designer’s world where materials meet ideas, learn what may
interest them about that world, and help them become more aware
of how things were designed and how they might design them.
[ home
] [ Workshop Photos ] [
IDC Ejewel Paper
]
[ pendant diagram handout
] [LED description
handout ]
Last modified
21 November, 2005
