Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Lesson Plan


So what can you do with 1 week? Teach a little of everything!

The schools in Cambodia do what they can with the resources they are given. Education and Academics are highly valued commodities in this extremely improvised land. As a result, most classes are theory only, no labs or experiments. Last year I essentially ran out of pure computer topics, so I moved on to general science classes. They went over well, so I'm getter better prepared this time.

One topic will be electronics. I have fond memories as a kid of my "200 in 1 Kit" from Radio Shack. This was a cardboard box that had various components like resistors, capacitors, lights, and even a couple integrated circuits on it, all with little springs for the connectors. You linked all of the parts together with wires that were held by the springs. It was amazing fun, and purely hands-on.

So this year I found the modern version: Snap Circuits Pro SC-500. They made it a lot easier by putting the components on plastic pieces with metal snaps. We bought the Junior version for my Son’s 5th birthday. He had built his own toy within minutes and had a blast. The Pro version I got for Cambodia will be unlike anything they have ever seen.

Oh, and this will be 1 of my 5 days of class. I plan on covering some Physics, Chemistry, and Biology as well.

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