AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on science with squishy circuits

譯者: Joan Liu 審譯者: Jenny Yang

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

我非常相信親自動手做的學習方式。

But you have to have the right tools.

但你需要正確的工具。

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

如果我要教我女兒電學，

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

我不會給他洛鐵。

And similarly, she finds prototyping boards

同樣的，如果她用原型板

really frustrating for her little hands.

對她的小手來說是非常麻煩的。

So my wonderful student Sam and I

所以我的學生山姆和我

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

決定要用我們能想到最實際的東西：

Play-Doh.

黏土。

And so we spent a summer

所以我們花了一個暑假

looking at different Play-Doh recipes.

來找各種黏土的做法。

And these recipes probably look really familiar

而這些做法或許對那些曾經

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

做過自製黏土的人會覺得很熟悉，

pretty standard ingredients you probably have in your kitchen.

這些標準原料或許是你在廚房就已經有的。

We have two favorite recipes --

我們有兩個最喜歡的做法：

one that has these ingredients

一個有這些原料

and a second that had sugar instead of salt.

另一個將鹽改成糖。

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

而且他們很棒。我們可以做這些很棒的小雕塑品。

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

但更酷的是如果你把他們放在一起，

You see that really salty Play-Doh?

你看到那個很鹹的黏土，

Well, it conducts electricity.

它會導電。

And this is nothing new.

而且這不是新發現。

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

其實市售的黏土也可以導電，

and high school physics teachers have used that for years.

且中學物理老師已經用這個好幾年了。

But our homemade play-dough

但我們這些自製的黏土

actually has half the resistance of commercial Play-Doh.

事實上電阻是市售的一半。

And that sugar dough?

那個糖黏土呢？

Well it's 150 times more resistant to electric current

它的電阻比鹽黏土大

than that salt dough.

一百五十倍。

So what does that mean?

這是什麼意思呢？

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

意思是如果你把它們放在一起你就有了電路--

circuits that the most creative, tiny, little hands

一個很有創造力的小小手

can build on their own.

可以自行完成的電路。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

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

所以我要做個小示範。

So if I take this salt dough,

如果我拿這個鹽黏土--

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

它跟你們小時候玩過的差不多--

and I plug it in --

然後我將它通電--

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

這是個二鉛電池組，很簡單的電池組--

you can buy them at Radio Shack

你可以在Radio Shack

and pretty much anywhere else --

或是其他很多地方都買的到--

we can actually then

我們真的可以

light things up.

讓燈亮起來。

But if any of you have studied electrical engineering,

但如果在座各位有學電路工程，

we can also create a short circuit.

我們也可以創造短路。

If I push these together, the light turns off.

如果我把這些放在一起，燈會暗掉。

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

好，電路會想要通過黏土而不是LED燈。

If I separate them again, I have some light.

如果我把它們分開，我又有燈光了。

Well now if I take that sugar dough,

現在如果我拿那糖黏土，

the sugar dough doesn't want to conduct electricity.

糖黏土不想要傳導電流，

It's like a wall to the electricity.

有點像是擋住電流的牆壁。

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

如果我把它放在中間，現在所有黏土都有接觸，

but if I stick that light back in,

但當我把燈放回去的時候，

I have light.

燈會亮。

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

事實上，我還可以在我的雕塑品中加入一些動作。

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

如果我想要一條旋轉尾巴，我們可以拿一個馬達，

put some play-dough on it, stick it on

覆上一些黏土，黏上去，

and we have spinning.

我們就可以讓它轉了。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

And once you have the basics,

當你會這些基本的以後，

we can make a slightly more complicated circuit.

我們就可以做複雜的電路了。

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

我們叫這個壽司電路，非常受孩子們喜愛。

I plug in again the power to it.

我將它插電。

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

現在我可以探討串聯和並聯。

I can start plugging in lots of lights.

我可以放進很多個燈泡。

And we can start talking about things like electrical load.

我們可以開始探討電負載量。

What happens if I put in lots of lights

當我放進很多燈泡

and then add a motor?

又放進馬達時會怎麼樣？

It'll dim.

燈泡會變暗。

We can even add microprocessors

我們也可以放入微處理器，

and have this as an input

用這個當作輸入

and create squishy sound music that we've done.

然後創造模湖的音效。

You could do parallel and series circuits

你可以與孩子用這個

for kids using this.

做出並連和電路組合。

So this is all in your home kitchen.

所以這些都是你廚房裡有的東西。

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

我們試著將它改造成電機工程實驗室。

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

我們有個網站，所有東西都在上面。這些是家庭中製作的方法。

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

我們有些影片。你們也可以自己做。

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

很有趣的是我們可以知道這個計畫影響了什麼。

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

有個在猶他的媽媽和他的孩子用這個

to a science researcher in the U.K.,

做了一個在英國的科學實驗，

and curriculum developers in Hawaii.

夏威夷的教材研究也用了這個。

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

所以我鼓勵你們拿起一些黏土，

grab some salt, grab some sugar and start playing.

拿一些鹽、一些糖，然後開始玩。

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

我們不常把廚房當作電機實驗室，

or little kids as circuit designers,

也不會把小朋友想成電路設計師，

but maybe we should.

但或許我們應該要這麼想。

Have fun. Thank you.

好好玩！謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）