Tech DIY

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, July 2012; written by Lisa Pearson.

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a coaches’ clinic for First Lego League robotics. The clinic, which was sponsored by the Juneau Economic Development Council and hosted by the coaches of the Fawn Mountain robotics team, was an opportunity for teachers and parents to learn how to mentor kids as they use Lego NXT robots to develop their skills in math, science, logic and teamwork. It was also a great opportunity for grown-ups to have fun with the robots! As I was programming my robot to follow a squiggly line and do point-turns, I realized that adults don’t get to goof around enough. So here are my suggestions for putting a little play into your life, in increasing order of difficulty and risk.

“Build your own paper robots” by Julius Perdana and Josh Buczynski is not an origami book. These are multi-piece models with moveable parts, reminiscent of the Transformers. The book comes with a CD so that you can quickly print off color copies of the 14 different robot models to cut and assemble, but the CD also contains line-art files that you can color in by hand after they’ve been printed. You can also use an image-editing program like Photoshop or Paint Shop to fill in the sections with any design you want. There are even a couple of 3D backdrops you can build so that you can stage your paper robots properly.

With “Mini weapons of mass destruction: build implements of spitball warfare” by John Austin, you will never look at office supplies the same way again. An unsharpened pencil, a pen and a rubber band is transformed into a simple crossbow. Clothespins, binder clips and Popsicle sticks are assembled into a catapult. You can even make a claymore mine with a mousetrap and some Skittles. Since most of these little gizmos are firing projectiles, and since some of them involve igniting hairspray as the propellant, I do not recommend this book for kids. This is adult play only (but guaranteed to conjure memories of dangerous childhood stunts with firecrackers and butane).

“Backyard ballistics” by William Gurstelle promises to teach you how to build potato cannons, tennis ball mortars, match-powered rockets, and carbide cannons. These projects are more elaborate than rigging up binder clips and rubber bands, and they often involve power tools, PVC pipe and flammable propellant. With the proper time investment, however, you can have a nifty little arsenal of launchers and cannons to occupy you for months. Each project comes with step-by-step instructions, a short history lesson about the real artillery device upon which it was modeled, and important safety precautions. Even if your child is a good enough engineer to build the projects in this book, they should still be operated by adults.

“The best of Make”, from the editors of Make magazine, is for serious tech-heads. I was dismayed to find that the one project I thought I could handle building was designed by a 12-year old (it’s a magnetic traveling game board – very handy). If you’re comfortable with circuitry and electronics, and the projects in Backyard Ballistics seem a little too simple, then you can play around with creating your own jet engine in a jam jar, making a mini-amplifier out of an Altoids tin, building a pinhole panoramic camera or turning a computer mouse into a light-sensitive robot. Some of these projects require a considerable time investment, but they will definitely dazzle your tech friends. And if you don’t find a project you like in this book, you can look through our back issues of MAKE magazine.

“Illustrated guide to home chemistry experiments” by Robert Bruce Thompson is for all those people who thought their Chem lab in college wasn’t long enough. There are 64 chemistry experiments in this book, and they are real lab experiments, complete with procedures, observations and conclusions. They require the proper glassware, chemical compounds, Bunsen burners and lab technique. But once you’ve set up your home chemistry lab, you can synthesize compounds, analyze substances, and observe a variety of chemical reactions. You can hone your titration skills. You can even plate metal, build a battery, produce rayon, and reveal fingerprints. Besides, playing with chemistry glassware is so much fun.

So grab a book, fire up your geek side and have a little fun this summer. Just be sure to play safe.