ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

> 
> Like Eric I would ask for a clearer set of goals, both educational and experiential.  When I was trying to figure out the one here there was a wide mix of stated goals.  "OH and it could do this, and it could do that, and what if we had a..."  Maybe a bit too scatter shot.  Everything from simple ideas like series versus parallel circuits to efficiency of LEDs versus incandescent bulbs.  And "home" wiring to electronics...We ended up with a little bit of everything.  It was a tinkering area so maybe that was OK, but I'm not sure.  
> 
> We did include things like Voltage and Amperage meters which gave the ability to make quantitative observations.   Electricity is an invisible force (unless you count sparks flying, which we wanted to stay away from!) so the meters were nice.  We had batteries of various combinations mounted in a panel on the table and the kids connected to those But the REAL power came from a lab unit mounted out of sight and dialed in to mimic the battery outputs.  Changing out batteries was considered too expensive*.  
> 
> I think we got a lot of it from Radio Shack for repeatability/repairability.  But I like the idea of using found stuff as kevin suggested.  
> 
> We found kids left circuits "on" when they finished and batteries were drained daily if not hourly.  The lab power supplies were not cheap ($500?) but they had all sorts of built in protections so you couldn't dial them too high and they could not be shorted out.  But an hour a day for an Exhibit tech to swap out batteries was way more $$ in the long run.  
> 
> Erich Rose
> 
> Erich Rose Design
> 807 The Living End
> Austin, TX 78746
> 512-626-9930; [log in to unmask]
> 
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/erichrose/

***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.

To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]