My interest for electricity and simple mechanics sparked in me sometime when I was eleven years old. Since I was very young I only wanted RC toys for my birthday, I was incredibly intrigued by how these toys could wirelessly communicate with the magic box with levers in my hands.
Quickly I moved on to more creative toys such as legos and K'NEX and I started flexing my creative muscles more. I spent hours upon hours on the floor sorrounded by plastic pieces. I loved it.
I started making basic circuits from a book one day, light bulb and battery circuits mostly... I realized that I liked these circuits and how they worked, but wanted a way to enclose them.
My parents drank a brand of english tea that came in wooden boxes, and I would "borrow" these boxes, sand them down and drill holes in them to place the switches and lightbulbs on the outside, to hide all the wires and batteries that powered the circuits.
In 8th grade, I went to a well known industrial school in Buenos Aires where you would spend about half of your day in shops and classes related to engineering related topics. Along with the shop classes you had traditional courses such as history, literature, science and math. The first two years you had to take a drafting class where you would learn how to draw incredibly complicated mechanical features using pencils, rulers and squares on a board. The school had simple mechanics and electronics classes up until 10th grade, and then you had to choose if you wanted to focus more on electronics or mechanics.
The mechanics seniors would work on a not so old Renault race car previously used in TC (turismo carretera). They would completely rebuild the car, machine new parts for it, basically turn it inside out. Let me remind you that this was high school.
After my eight grade there, I moved up here to Minnesota (brrrr) and found the Bakken science museum (link here which offered classes to kids like me that wanted to invent and learn. I took classes in which they let me explore and learn the wonders of science. With the help of mentors and other volunteers I learned how to program, solder together circuits and design machines that would autonomously respond to light or touch. I did this program for a couple of years and then started volunteering with their programs that I was once in. I felt the need to give back to this place that had taught me so much.
These are some of the skills I learned at the Bakken
- Basic project management (Think it, Make it, Improve it, Show it)
- Soldering, PCB making
- Programming in PBasic code
- Circuit design for microcontrollers
- Plexiglass cutting and bending
- Basic combustion for potato cannons as well as calcium carbide cannons
- In the process of all of the above, I mastered the drill press, bench top jigsaw and table saw as well as the soldering iron
I would recommend this place to anyone, either as a volunteer to go back and explore science along with young minds, or if you have young ones that are interested in finding some answers in this scientifical world.
