Summer is the perfect season for your kids to explore their talents both indoors and outdoors. There’s no better way to do this than trying some cool DIY projects they can share with friends.
Most of these hacks are budget-friendly and easy, making them suitable for all ages. You can also guide your kids through trying out one or a couple of these 11 exciting electronic projects.
1. DIY Intruder Alarm
The importance of home security can't be overstated. You can guide your kids to create a functional burglar alarm system, while also teaching them about the importance of taking care of their possessions.
The hack can be linked with an Android phone so that an SMS and a photo of anyone trying to break into your house is transmitted automatically.
2. Lemon-Powered Light
The mechanism behind the functionality of a battery or cell can easily be replicated using any fruit that has a concentrated acidic solvent. As you may've guessed, lemons are perfect for this. It’s common that such fruits have a high concentration of citric acid.
Guide your kids to make a simple home battery with a few lemons and cables. They can surprise their friends with this creation at school.
3. Junkbot
A junkbot is a kit that lets kids create small robots from waste products lying around the house. These may include old CDs, cardboards, wooden spoons, and plastic bottles. Your kids will love everything about the process since perfection is not really the goal.
They'll also start grasping the basics of design and prototyping. The hack will help kids tidy up their rooms since they can use any waste items as body parts for their junkbots.
4. Simple Circuit Game
A DIY circuit game will keep kids engaged on a competitive activity for hours. It'll also teach them important concepts in science, math, art, technology, and engineering.
Ensure that the board game has colorful diodes that indicate when a student answers a question correctly. Once they tackle this one, they’ll be motivated to try out other complicated electronic projects.
5. LED Pocket Flashlight
A pocket flashlight DIY project allows kids to learn about electric current and luminance. All that's required is to gather the right components including AAA batteries, diodes, old water bottles, and a few wires.
Kids will appreciate the process behind all lighting systems at home, in the streets, and at school. If you realize that they are enjoying the project, you might introduce the idea of the voltaic pile.
Your child will also be impressed with these stunning LED projects.
6. Starry Ceiling
The star ceiling hack is a practical project that you can guide your kids to build for installation in the living room. If done right, the hack will make your living room ceiling appear to have sparkling stars, similar to a moonless sky at night.
The project is simple enough to complete in a few hours but requires teamwork, meaning all hands are needed on deck. You can use this project to teach your kids about various constellations, along with the basics of the Solar System.
7. Twitch bots
If you didn't know, it's entirely possible to make your own twitch bots. If you want to guide your kids on how to do this, ensure that the browser has safe mode turned on. The basic process of creating a website bot requires you to download mIRC, which is a Windows shareware for chat.
On completion, the kids can try interacting with the chat bot by typing in questions. While such a bot is limited in the number of replies it can accurately give, it paves the way for kids to learn about websites and software development.
8. Bottle Airplane
If your kids are in the mood for a fun project that also teaches them about aerodynamics, this hack will get the job done. The materials they need for this project are plastic bottles and wastepaper.
You can take advantage of this exercise to teach them about the basics of Bernoulli's Principle. This project is perfect for a sunny afternoon in the park.
9. Drawdio
With Drawdio, you'll guide your kids on how to make a unique pencil that plays musical tones depending on the resistance of the material you're drawing on. The project is fun way to teach children about frequency, electric conductors, and resistance. It also creates an opportunity for them to play around with different sounds.
The kids can try a few fun activities with Drawdio, such as writing their names on a piece of paper or drawing their favorite pets. They can then compare their work to see how much the sound affected their creativity.
If your kids want to make other cool gadgets, introduce them to these low-budget DIY electronic projects suitable for beginners.
10. Walking Robot
Many kids are fascinated by robots since they've seen them in movies and cartoons. The best gift you can give to a youngster who is passionate about robotics is guiding them through making their own.
The project is fairly easy to set up because it doesn't require a microcontroller. With a motor, power source, and wooden sticks, you'll have a robot that can walk. Make sure that the robotic feet are big enough to secure the robot when walking.
11. Paper Circuits
Creating a paper circuit is the first step toward understanding how PCB boards used in phones and computers work. A key part of paper circuits is the need to make physics and artwork function as a single unit.
Your kids will appreciate this project since it’ll let them try out different ideas for inspiration. For example, they may want to recreate popular movie characters. They can print out a portrait of Thor or Superman and fit white diodes their eyes to portray various powers. The glowing eye diodes can be activated by pressing a button.
Feel free to also add audio files that play along the glowing diodes.
Challenge Your Kids With Electronic Projects
Summers don’t have to be all about repetitive trips to the beach or other places that you’ve already taken the kids before. How about opening the door for them to learn how to make exciting things using basic hand tools? It won’t cost much, but will pay off tremendously in the long run. Plus, they’ll likely excel in classes at school and science fairs.