AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on science with squishy circuits

Translator: Natalia Pérez Bermejo Reviewer: Noemi Casadesus Viola

I'm a huge believer in hands-on education.

Sóc partidària de l'educació pràctica.

But you have to have the right tools.

Però amb les eines adients.

If I'm going to teach my daughter about electronics,

Si he d'ensenyar electrònica a la meva filla,

I'm not going to give her a soldering iron.

no li donaré pas una soldadora.

And similarly, she finds prototyping boards

Així mateix, els taulers de prototips resulten

really frustrating for her little hands.

frustrants per a les seves manetes.

So my wonderful student Sam and I

Amb el meu magnífic alumne Sam

decided to look at the most tangible thing we could think of:

vam decidir pensar en la cosa més flexible possible,

Play-Doh.

la plastilina.

And so we spent a summer

I ens vam passar l'estiu

looking at different Play-Doh recipes.

provant diferents receptes per a fer-ne.

And these recipes probably look really familiar

Receptes que segur que li sonen

to any of you who have made homemade play-dough --

a qualsevol que hagi fet plastilina casolana,

pretty standard ingredients you probably have in your kitchen.

amb ingredients normals que segur que teniu a la cuina.

We have two favorite recipes --

En tenim dues preferides:

one that has these ingredients

una amb aquests ingredients

and a second that had sugar instead of salt.

i l'altra posant-hi sucre en lloc de sal.

And they're great. We can make great little sculptures with these.

I són genials. Es poden fer escultures molt bones.

But the really cool thing about them is when we put them together.

Però el més guai és quan les ajuntem

You see that really salty Play-Doh?

i veiem que la plastilina molt salada

Well, it conducts electricity.

condueix l'electricitat.

And this is nothing new.

No és cap novetat.

It turns out that regular Play-Doh that you buy at the store conducts electricity,

La plastilina normal que es compra condueix l'electricitat

and high school physics teachers have used that for years.

i fa anys que els mestres de física la fan servir.

But our homemade play-dough

Però la plastilina casolana

actually has half the resistance of commercial Play-Doh.

té la meitat de resistència que la plastilina comercial.

And that sugar dough?

I la pasta de sucre?

Well it's 150 times more resistant to electric current

És 150 vegades més resistent al corrent

than that salt dough.

que la de sal.

So what does that mean?

I això què vol dir?

Well it means if you them together you suddenly have circuits --

Vol dir que ajuntant-les obtenim circuits

circuits that the most creative, tiny, little hands

que els ditets més petits i creatius

can build on their own.

poden construir tots sols.

(Applause)

(Aplaudiment)

And so I want to do a little demo for you.

Us en faré una petita demostració.

So if I take this salt dough,

Agafo la plastilina salada,

again, it's like the play-dough you probably made as kids,

segurament com la que feieu de petits,

and I plug it in --

la connecto...

it's a two-lead battery pack, simple battery pack,

és una bateria normal de dos contactes,

you can buy them at Radio Shack

es pot comprar al Radio Shack

and pretty much anywhere else --

i gairebé a tot arreu,

we can actually then

i ara podem

light things up.

fer llum.

But if any of you have studied electrical engineering,

I si algú de vosaltres és enginyer elèctric,

we can also create a short circuit.

també podem crear un curtcircuit.

If I push these together, the light turns off.

Si els ajunto, s'apaga la llum.

Right, the current wants to run through the play-dough, not through that LED.

Exacte, el corrent vol travessar la plastilina, no el LED.

If I separate them again, I have some light.

Si els separo, tornem a tenir llum.

Well now if I take that sugar dough,

I ara amb la pasta de sucre,

the sugar dough doesn't want to conduct electricity.

que no vol conduir l'electricitat.

It's like a wall to the electricity.

Fa com una paret.

If I place that between, now all the dough is touching,

Si la poso enmig, tota la pasta està en contacte,

but if I stick that light back in,

però si hi torno a ficar el llum,

I have light.

tenim llum.

In fact, I could even add some movement to my sculptures.

I fins i tot podria donar-hi una mica de moviment.

If I want a spinning tail, let's grab a motor,

Per a fer una cua giratòria, s'agafa un motor,

put some play-dough on it, stick it on

s'hi posa plastilina, la hi enganxem bé,

and we have spinning.

i ja ho tenim.

(Applause)

(Aplaudiments)

And once you have the basics,

I a partir del més bàsic

we can make a slightly more complicated circuit.

es poden fer circuits una mica més complicats.

We call this our sushi circuit. It's very popular with kids.

D'aquest en diem "circuit de sushi". Els encanta als nens.

I plug in again the power to it.

El torno a connectar

And now I can start talking about parallel and series circuits.

i ja estaríem parlant de circuits en paral·lel i en sèrie.

I can start plugging in lots of lights.

Hi puc connectar molts llums.

And we can start talking about things like electrical load.

I estaríem parlant de coses com la càrrega elèctrica.

What happens if I put in lots of lights

I si hi posem molts llums

and then add a motor?

i hi afegim un motor?

It'll dim.

Llum tènue.

We can even add microprocessors

S'hi poden afegir microprocessadors

and have this as an input

i que això fes d'entrada

and create squishy sound music that we've done.

i crear música esponjosa com aquesta.

You could do parallel and series circuits

Es poden fer circuits en paral·lel i en sèrie

for kids using this.

per als nens.

So this is all in your home kitchen.

I tot això a la cuina de casa.

We've actually tried to turn it into an electrical engineering lab.

De fet, hem mirat de convertir-la en un laboratori d'electrònica.

We have a website, it's all there. These are the home recipes.

Ho tenim tot penjat a un lloc web. Les receptes casolanes,

We've got some videos. You can make them yourselves.

alguns vídeos. Els podeu fer vosaltres mateixos.

And it's been really fun since we put them up to see where these have gone.

És molt divertit perquè així veiem fins on es pot arribar:

We've had a mom in Utah who used them with her kids,

una mare de Utah que els feia servir amb els fills

to a science researcher in the U.K.,

o un científic del Regne Unit,

and curriculum developers in Hawaii.

o uns programadors de Hawaii.

So I would encourage you all to grab some Play-Doh,

Us convido a agafar un xic de plastilina,

grab some salt, grab some sugar and start playing.

sal i sucre i us poseu a jugar.

We don't usually think of our kitchen as an electrical engineering lab

Normalment no veiem la cuina com un laboratori d'electrònica

or little kids as circuit designers,

o els nens com enginyers,

but maybe we should.

però potser ho hauríem de fer.

Have fun. Thank you.

Que vagi bé i gràcies.

(Applause)

(Aplaudiment)