On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 04:21:16 -0400, "Mike S" nospam put finger to
keyboard and composed:

I recently had the opportunity to install computer systems in a private
school, and the only available time was during classes. As I went about my
business during a 4th grade science class the teacher was asking the
students what they had planned for their science fair projects. One young
girl told the teacher "My dad and I built a Heathkit".
The teacher's response: "What's a Heathkit"
Girl: "We built a radio from scratch. We soldered all the parts and
adjusted everything to make it work"
Teacher: "Your science projects need to TEACH you something, not just
follow instructions from a kit..."
At this point I had stopped what I was doing and I listened to the teacher
explain how to select a project from their textbooks.

It appears that the teacher taught this girl and the class some valuable
lessons:
The older generation can't teach us anything about modern electronics, and
there's no need to know these things anyway because...
Theory is useless. Radios are mass produced in China and there are no
adjustments to be made.
Working with your hands means building a cardboard diorama instead of a
working model of someth am interested in all ing.

I am interested in everyone's thoughts about this.
Mike

For one thing, the young girl probably learned how to solder. She may
also have learned how to recognise electronic components, even if she
didn't understand how they worked. I think that's valuable practical
knowledge. Most importantly, however, if she enjoyed doing what she
did, then that may have inspired her to learn more about the subject.

I accept that rote learning is not very useful, but the girl's science
project is a lot more than that. It's true what you say about China,
though. Gone are the days when you could assemble a kit for less than
the price of a ready-built commercial device. And even if you wanted
to try, the datasheets for many ICs may only be available to the IC
manufacturer's "partners". As for electronic theory, how many of us
understand MPEG, digital TV, ADSL protocols, mobile phone protocols,
etc? Are these concepts even taught? It seems to me that there is an
ever shrinking clique of designers who are privy to proprietary
standards, or standards that are sold at prohibitive cost.

One question I would ask the teacher is whether there is any point in
doing the science experiments called out in the curriculum, eg adding
an acid to an alkali to make a salt. Surely that's only repeating what
countless other people have already done?

- Franc Zabkar
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