List of Recommended Items for Kids Take It Apart Table
Jim Harper, a senior project manager for an engineering website, volunteers with sons Able (eight) and Eli (five) to man Warwick’s Kids Take It Apart Table. Jim recommends the following list of items as particularly educationally appropriate for kids to take apart with adult supervision. Their component parts provide real learning opportunities if you are lucky enough to have an adult who understands and can describe how the parts make the product work. Note: all items you bring to the table should be “take-apartable” by removing screws; it’s not safe for kids to try to pry things apart. You’ll need to supply several screwdrivers of various sizes, including extra small. Jim also recommends using a battery pack to allow you to power an item and to show the kids the parts working (or partially working), without plugging it in to a wall socket (which would not be safe).
•LCD projectors (there is an awesome array of optics in older projectors)
•Overhead projectors (convex and fresnel lenses)
•Personal cassette players or tape decks (small motors, tape heads, switches)
•Analog or digital cameras (lenses, mechanical shutters, servos)
•Portable radios (digital and analog tuners, dials, and speakers)
•Remote-control toys (wheels, motors, servos, radio sets)
•Wind-up toys (gears, springs)
•Scanners and all-in-one printers (motors, gears, proximity sensors, light bars)
•Mechanical or electronic scales (springs, LEDs, rack-and-pinion gears, strain gauge sensors)
•Analog desk phones (speaker, microphone, mechanical dial, number pad, buttons)
•VCRs (motors, video heads)
•Audio speakers (speakers, magnets)
•Sewing machines (motors, gears, wheels, switches, springs)
•Mechanical typewriters (springs, gears, letter keys)
•Kitchen countertop appliances (mechanical parts, electromagnetic motors)
The following items are not recommended for the Kids Take It Apart Table: cell phones, computers, monitors, tube/CRT/flat panel TVs.
