Sunday, September 30, 2018

School Projects - The case for supplying the same project KIT for every child






Jireh Electronics has been supplying school project kits for 4 years now with great success. There has been some push back from teachers though. Such as Parents should not do the projects for their kids or planning the project is part of the assignment. Even saying that giving every child the same kit is limiting their creativity. We agree that some projects do require an additional element of creativity, but those are reserved for cases where creative thinking processes are the focus point of the educational exercise.

Our business started with one teacher who said that she had a continuous struggle in class with the projects, she would hand out a detailed list of components required for the project, but what the children came back with differed vastly. For an electrical circuit in this case she required a 9V battery, a small electrical globe (the size of the one's being used in flashlights), some electrical connecting wire, and a piece of wood on which the project can be constructed.

Children bought back filament lamps that are used in house applications, D-Cell batteries as used in the large flashlights, a piece of wire that might be to thick to use in a project and a piece of wood that was too hard to push in the thumbtacks for the electrical connections. Admittedly this was the worst case scenario, but it was a very real problem that she was experiencing as a teacher, not even to mention students that might have forgotten to bring anything. These issues were robbing precious time to allow the actual understanding  of the working principles of the circuit.

This teacher asked then if we could not make kits for her class. She would get the parents to pay for the kits, and we would supply the teacher with enough kits for every child. This worked tremendously well, the time she spent in the past on sorting out the different project components that each student bought, could now be used to explain the assembly process once and left enough spare time to explain the circuit operation which at the end of the day was the focal point behind the whole project exercise.

Thus in summary the Pros and Cons are as follows:

Positive:
- Each student has the same kit, allowing each student to get a good mark, promoting equality.
- Parents do not have to spend time looking for project components after work.
- Teachers have more time available the explain the principle thus learning time is increased.

Negative:
- Perception that parents are doing the project for the child, whilst the opposite is true as the teacher now has time to build the projects in class with the children.
- Perception that creativity is limited, whilst the opposite is true as the actual focus of the learning exercise is understanding of the operating principle aligned with real world experience.

We hope that this blog post will inspire more teachers to make use of these kits, to help to build the future of the Country - the children that are being molded into the adults of tomorrow.

Our kits are available on our online store www.jirehelectronics.co.za
Connect with us on our Facebook page
Should anybody require more information feel free to contact us via the email link listed below.


Jireh Electronics.
Michael Schlenther
Online Store
Facebook page
sales@jirehelectronics.co.za


Friday, September 28, 2018

Learn Electronics - Without Soldering



If your child ever showed an interest in electronics you might have shied away from the idea when you start to think about the soldering Iron that could be a danger. Breadboards are also an option, but at a young age children need to see the connections between components to better understand the functioning.

We are now offering electronics kits that are built on a piece of wood. The entire circuit is assembled using thumbtacks for the electrical connection points, and paperclips to represent the switches. In the above circuit a child can learn about Resistors, LED's, Diodes, Batteries and Buzzers without touching a soldering Iron. Today our children are also lacking motor skills to be able to work with their hands. When the children see the assembled circuit they say "is that all we are going to do?, that is easy" but they realise very quickly that it is not so easy to strip a wire, or to hold a thumbtack with pliers to hit it into the wood with a hammer.

Give your child a head start. If they show a genuine interest, parents no longer have to be hindered by the thought of a soldering iron. Should parents be concerned about the assembly they can relax, as we include circuit diagrams with our kits.

If you would like to get a kit for your children, please visit our online store www.jirehelectronics.co.za or simply click on the following link: Online Store
Should you have any further queries, you can contact us via email: sales@jirehelectronics.co.za
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Jireh Electronics
Letitia Schlenther
082 588 3731
sales@jirehelectronics.co.za

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Online Store


Our online store is the easiest place to order and view our product range. Should you require anything else that might not be listed on our store, or you have a stock enquiry feel free to send a message on our Facebook Page

Click the link below to visit our online store.
Online Store

Michael Schlenther
Jireh Electronics
Facebook Page