Kia ora everyone, already the year seems to be racing away and term one is over and we are more than halfway through the second technology rotation.

Year 7’s have been making a simple 2 LED circuit to go into a picture holder. I need your help with this! They will need help to find a picture to put in it that we will cut down to 80x80mm and laminate. They will also need to be encouraged at home to go onto the Tinkercad website and see if they can design their own battery holder. Please don’t make these too big as there is limited space on the back of the picture holder for this and it will need to hold a 9 Volt battery. My advice is to have a look at what others have done in the past on this site at Waimea Intermediate and design yours around that  www.tinkercad.com

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The last part of the 10 or 12 session cycle for the year 7’s is to design/draw a silhouette and then create some parallel circuits that can have up to 3 LED’s on each circuit that can be flashing or none flashing while using a range of colours including Rainbow LED’s. 

Consistent marks across all areas here will mean they will be selected for Extension Electronics next year.

Year 8’s this year I have decided to take a more ‘hard materials’ approach to electronics, where the students are asked to look at their culture and identity in coming up with a clock design. So please, if you help by telling them a little about your family history (tangatawhenua) including where you were born and where you are from originally. Don’t forget to include the grandparents in this. The purpose of this is to create a design that is unique and reflects the individual thereby future proofing the finished design. Have a look at the couple of photos I have included in this article. This clock design must have some lights in it as well with more than one circuit.

Extension class this year was selected on their marks from last year and those who have attended have been given the opportunity to make some complicated circuits using a range of components put together on a PCB. (printed circuit board) This time has also been used for those students who haven’t finished, to catch up. If your child hasn’t brought something home please remind them that their last opportunity to finish it is on a Friday morning 9-10.30.

That’s it for now, I will look forward to showing you some new and more interesting designs as the year unfolds. If at any stage you would like to contact me, my email is john.macdonald@waimeaint.school.nz or if that’s not your thing give the school a call and I'll ring you back when I can after school.

Until later,

John Macdonald