Ask HN: Seeking ideas for preschool/school projects
I'm reaching out for some creative suggestions. I have a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old attending preschool/school, and both sets of teachers have asked for ideas from parents for skills they could show or projects they could help with in the classroom.
I have a background in computer science, primarily focused on web development these days. Additionally, I have loads of potentially useful toys at home, including a 3D printer, DIY CNC mill, webcams, Raspberry Pis, old laptops, etc.
What are some engaging activities or projects I could bring to either level of the schools that would be both fun and educational for the kids? Particularly ideas we could do as a class vs breaking into smaller groups.
I have had a couple of ideas so far - Processing based art interactive which the kids can suggest updates for and instantly see the changes. - Something RTLSDR based, so we can play with antennas and catch some radio waves.
Looking forward to your creative ideas and suggestions, thank you.
89 comments
[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 149 ms ] threadhttps://classic.csunplugged.org/activities/
I also like the self-paced courses on Code.org: https://code.org/student/elementary
My kindergartner has access to Tynker through school. Maybe your school district has a license to something similar?
Good luck!
https://code.org/curriculum/unplugged
Do them both. Good luck.
3D printer and CNC are sort of too specific ... at that age, for most projects, cardboard prototypes are better (cheaper, faster, more rewarding, more parallel). Pottery is even better though because it becomes a permanent piece and lets you do painting as well.
In later school maybe basic robotics works with a pi... lesson by lesson skill building like "synth speech", "parse speech", "sensor data acquisition", "internet query", "database 101", whatever...
I would go for a hands-on, making exercise. I think my son was around 7 when I made a crystal radio with him. He was pretty bored until he heard voices in the earpiece. I will never forget the look of surprise on his face. You are an extremely curious, independent learner. Most students are not in my experience. The biggest challenge in education is moving the least able, to the most able forward. So consider activities that work for all. You suggested group work which is a good idea as you can assign members specific tasks.
[1] https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Technology/M...
(IIRC there's theoretically an "educational edition" of this, but I don't know if I'd put much stock in that; you're close enough and personalizing the learning enough that you're probably better off just using the normal mod.)
The tool is entirely web-based and requires no installs or complicated setup to be able to use.
Dig around Bret Victor's Dynamicland
You start with the different properties of stones. If you have flint, obsidian, granite, quartzite, gypsum, and calcite in your region -- find them together. If not, buy them. Teach your kids about their different properties, and how they were used to make hand tools.
Then, the different properties of woods. Hard, soft, green, etc. Show them why ash and hickory (and especially negatively buoyant cornus mas, if you can get it,) make much better tools than pine. Make wooden spears and harden their points in a fire you make with stone tools.
Then integrate the two -- use stone tools to make other stone tools, and combine stone and wood into wooden-handled stone tools. Make bows and stone-tipped arrows, and use them. Go foraging with the children, and teach them how to cook vegetables, fish, and meat over an open fire. (Note: Beware mushrooms unless you really know what you're doing.)
In short order, the children will understand how men have lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Then they can advance into copper smelting, pottery, building carts and canoes, making nets from natural fibers, writing on clay tablets, and so forth...
I feel that, as with math where the optimal method is to start with Euclid and then progress through the ages, one ought to learn to be in the world by moving through man's stages of development. At 4-7, they're in their prime for traipsing around the woods and making stone tools.
If you know what you're doing, you should know that children generally shouldn't eat wild mushrooms - they're hard to digest.
I don't recommend doing it with kids (or at least eating them with kids) but mushroom foraging is a lot of fun.
You need engagement first, in order to cause learning, and I guess any process that causes both learning and engagement makes sense, but in my experience at young ages, that's more likely to be on the doing/using rather than creating side of the spectrum.
The following are much better perfect information games for kids. I play each with my kids and have listed the age when they were able to strategise 2+ moves ahead:
- Gobblet Gobblers (4)
- Onitama (6)
- Hive (8)
Hive v Onitama, is Hive better for older kids or just more complex?
We tried Hive when my eldest was 6 and it was beyond them. We tried it again a few years later at 8 and it clicked, has been part of our regular rotation of games since.
Gobblet Gobblers -- on a cursory look -- seems to me like a complication on top of naughts and crosses. Namely, adding the ability to mask opponent pieces, and replace existing pieces.
As a side note it seems to me that one could replicate Gobblet Gobblers by using coloured coins of 3 sizes, with the smaller coins trumping the bigger ones thereby implying stacks.
Reminded me of the Logo language and its turtle graphics. It was made for kids, IIRC.
Used it some, early on. Fun.
There are free versions.
Also, Python has a turtle graphics module, like Logo.
https://codeclub.org/en/
And we have a tonne of resources at https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en
Playing around with teachable machine is also a tonne of fun for kids, and MIT have a platform called RAISE playground that has Scratch with teachable machine extensions
Animate drawings: https://sketch.metademolab.com/
Generate music, based on ideas from the kids using Suno or Udio.
Generate a story with GPT/Claude where kids in the classroom are the characters. Create images using Dall-e 3 and print copies so the kids can take it home.
This would probably be of interest to many parents and teachers too.
* Augmented reality sandbox -- The software is still out there. You may have already seen these in action, but it really is not too terrible difficult to build a setup yourself. Old PC with some sort of GPU (for the rain effect, which is the coolest aspect..), a microsoft kinect, and a whatever quality projector. This went over super well in my living room when the kids were 4 & 6 -- And we recently re-built it 4 years later -- The 4 year old didn't even remember it, but I have lots of pictures of her loving it at 4!). Super cool, super interactive, and a good tie in of 'building things using old technology'.
* Grabbing weather from passing NOAA satellites! Build a simple di-pole antenna using whatever materials (we used copper pipe). Involves math and science discussions, and also may get the little ones interested in the weather. RTLSDR, some copper pipe, a laptop, some software, and knowing when to be tuning in. A good example of how 'the first time you try something it may not work as well as you'd like', tweak away from there. Pretty exciting to pull a picture from a satellite line by line. Listen to the signal -- Memories of dialup will immediately be there.
* Use a streaming camera and speed-cam software to create a setup to see 'how fast they can run'. Process and result and discussions about how this setup works can lead to fun insights.
* Stop motion video creation -- Probably the best for your use case, have kids use technology to create their own stop-motion videos. I remember doing this back around the ages of 7, but at that time it was frame by frame using construction paper and a giant VHS camera on a tripod. Techniques have not changed really, but the setup to do stop motion on small scale kid levels is basically free. Shows how iterative processes add up.
* Build a bubble making machine -- I imagine you may have a box of old computer fans, motors, etc, etc. Build a bubble machine! Have them try to design one out. 7 year olds likely able to really design rough concepts, 4 year old can help assemble and most importantly, spill the bubble liquid all over the place! If you want to get fancy, have it become a motion activated bubble machine using motion detection via some ESP32 setup or whatever. "This is what we are trying to do, these are the resources on hand, how do YOU think we could make this happen?".
String up a wire, bust out the RTLSDR (or other SDR stuff) and try to listen to some shortwave from around the world or your area. Pulling whatever from the air always seems basically magic to all kids (and honestly, it's pretty much magic to myself as well).
Not really an able to do at school thing, but son build an AM / FM radio kit that had your typical Chinese 'instructions' and was able with a tiny bit of help to solder everything to the board and have it work first try. As someone else mentioned, it went "Lots of interest > I'm kind of tired of this > I'm so close I will push on > Oh my goodness, the radio works, this is the best". I'm a huge fan of trying to install the 'keep at it' or make changes to make things better way of teaching and learning.
* School/Maybe -- * Make electromagnets by wrapping some wire around some good sized nails, put a switch on it, and both mentioned age groups will likely find it super cool and is certainly electronic/science based.
Just a few of the things we have done around my house thus far and have shown a lot ...
Wow!
So cool, I want one. Watch the video here (1) it gets really neat at 1:43.
I want to do this.
For this who don’t know, cheap projectors these days are quite decent. I got one for $75 and we use it as the main screen for the kids. During very sunny days it does not work well, which is a benefit. If it’s too bright to watch TV then go outside! I have one like this and I love it, plenty of other vowel-poor companies make similar. (2)
There is also a makers magazine that has all kinds of ideas. Pretty cheap through discount magazine. https://makezine.com/
1 https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/SARndbox/
2 https://meh.com/forum/topics/vankyo-performance-v600-native-...
3 system 76 instructable https://www.instructables.com/Augmented-Reality-Sandbox/
One of the things that I always messed up when calibrating it, is the step using the CD-on-a-stick part. You need to do this calibration phase changing the z axis on different points. Do one low. Do one medium, do some 'high'. This is how the system defines it's 'skew' of projection when it comes to the different heights/levels -- and if you do this step all roughly on the same 'z' plane, it will work, but it will not be anywhere near as accurate / magical feeling. The instructions I believe are hazy on this critical part of the setup.
We always used blocks / things covered with white rags instead of sand. Far easier to justify building over the living room table this way, and makes for a quick clean up process!
It's 100% super cool. Also, as you said, we use an $89 3 years ago projector. It is NOT a short-throw projector, but mounted roughly 6-7' above the surface. The kinect was mounted on a yard-stick hanging slightly down below so it's field of view covers just that of the table itself.
It's a super neat end result; and can be decently frustrating during the calibration phases and software setup, but is worth it!
I gave a 6 session course to a homeschool coop on the History of Technology starting from stones and moving through bronze age, iron age, steam power, electricity, telegraph demo (big hit) radio and TV and early computers.
(I think Engineering schools should have a course on tech history)
I saw a cool one that had a water fall on a wall that became a river on a floor and the kids could take cushions and divert the river by blocking its flow. The 7 year olds would like that.
4 year olds like physical challenges. So you could use the projector to do a dynamic hop scotch or jumping game with Lilly pads.
I am actually not a big fan of getting kids involved with devices though. I think they need to learn to play in groups, spend time outside, and learn to be as physically capable as possible.
I think if you use tech it would ideally be to teach them a rule based team game where they have to work together, user their imagination and solve a problem.
1. What conditions they like
2. How they behave over time
3. What insects are attracted to them or eats them
…puts them in touch with the world.
IDing grasses is much harder, even for me unless it has a seedhead out or you have a microscope and know how to use a species identification key, so I wouldn’t bother with those.
PlantNet.org has a pretty nice app to assist ID with photo, but you can’t take the first result at face value.