It wasn't a glorious beginning; I remember. I must've been a sixth grader, crouched beside the kitchen cabinet scrounging for batteries. "Aha! I had found some! Now to try powering the LED that I just gutted from that freebie key-chain light." Hmm... touching a AA to the leads didn't seem to work at the time; so I'll go for the 9 [V]. **POP**! A fizzy yellow flare shot into my face, and the LED dimmed to a nasty brown, never to burn again. I was stunned and confused; electronics wasn't just a matter of plug-in-and-play, and I was beginning to discover this fact. Nevertheless--I had to admit that I was slightly pleased with myself. (I had just made an LED glow!) From there, I couldn't resist cracking open discarded electronic "doo-dads" doomed to the e-waste heap.
I want to say that it started right there--in that corner of the kitchen next to the batteries: that fascination with the way the world works, but I'd be wrong. I've had many more close calls since then as I've continued to dabble with the physical world, cutting live wires and breathing nasty epoxies--all in efforts to tame the world a little, maybe just enough to leave some mark.
It's been about ten years since I started a collection of discarded electronics (junk), but as I keep learning, I'm realizing that I'm losing the most important part in the quest to be a teacher: the "aha" moments. If I can "aha" for just a bit longer, I'm convinced that I'll be able to share these insights for years to come, rather than the few days around which I've just had them.
The solution? Write. Write them down. Admit mistakes. Persist. Be adventurous, curious--perhaps a little foolish--in the quest for discovery about how the technology in our world works and how we can rework it to work for us.
And with that, this is it. This is my foolishness documented. May it serve as a resource for tricks in learning to dream and engineer things well.
It's been about ten years since I started a collection of discarded electronics (junk), but as I keep learning, I'm realizing that I'm losing the most important part in the quest to be a teacher: the "aha" moments. If I can "aha" for just a bit longer, I'm convinced that I'll be able to share these insights for years to come, rather than the few days around which I've just had them.
The solution? Write. Write them down. Admit mistakes. Persist. Be adventurous, curious--perhaps a little foolish--in the quest for discovery about how the technology in our world works and how we can rework it to work for us.
And with that, this is it. This is my foolishness documented. May it serve as a resource for tricks in learning to dream and engineer things well.
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