Melting Metal for Fun and Profit
This program is a fantastic parent/child bonding opportunity. Learning to solder opens a huge world of inventive possibilities and telling your friends you held a 300 degree Celcius “pencil” is pretty cool. Each child receives a kit that contains all of the parts they need to create an LED-based project. Most consist of a battery holder, battery and 1-5 LEDs. Participants need to solder between 4 and 10 points. Soldering irons and instruction are provided by TinkerTruck but this requires direct and constant supervision and therefore is best suited as a parent/child activity. Parents will learn this skill as well.
* Minimum supervision ratio is based on the children’s ages but is typically 2:1 or 3:1. Pricing depends on staff required to meet these ratios, but parent volunteers can reduce the costs substantially.
Prices begin at $199/group
Ontario Curriculum Intersections:
This program can be adapted to emphasize or demonstrate learning objectives in the following broad categories:
- Science & Engineering
- Melting points of various metallic alloys
- Conductivity and electron flow in a circuit
- Polarity of certain electronic components
- Tool use: soldering iron
- Mathematics
- Ratios are used in mixing paint viscosity and colours
- Geometry is used in describing areas of the canvas (center, corner, quadrant)
- For older grades we can discuss the Golden Ratio for composition
- Angles are used in describing how to tip and rotate the canvas to make the paint flow
- Language
- Participants often see images in randomness (Pareidolia) which can be used to tell stories
- Participants are often excited to tell caregivers how they made the paintings so an experience re-tell exercise reinforces the process and the vocabulary of the science.