| "SNAP CIRCUITS PRO 500" Electronics Kit Description:
Inspire your young electrical engineer with this hands-on electronics kit!
Delight your young engineer with SNAP CIRCUITS! They will enjoy using 75 parts to build over 500 projects while learning the basics of electronics. Bright kids will be absorbed as they build projects that make sound effects, different types of alarms, touch circuits, and games!
SNAP CIRCUITS makes learning electronics easy and fun! All parts are mounted on plastic modules and snap together with ease.
Just follow the colorful pictures in the manual, build many exciting projects, and enjoy hours of educational fun!
Product Notes:
4 "AA" batteries required, not included.
Product Specifications:
Ages: 8+
Number of Players: 1-2
Box Size: 19" x 13.5" x 2.2"
Box Weight: 4.1 lbs
Product Contents:
1 Base Grid (11.0" x 7.7")
28 Snap Wires, various sizes
1 Diode
1 7-Segment LED Display
1 FM Module
1 Analog Meter
1 SCR
1 Relay
1 Transformer
1 Recording Integrated Circuit
1 Whistle Chip
1 Slide Switch
1 Press Switch
1 Photoresistor
1 Antenna Coil
2 LEDs (Red, Green)
2 Lamp Socket
2 Battery Holder
1 Microphone
1 Speaker
1 Power Amplifier Integrated Circuit
1 Music Integrated Circuit
1 Alarm Integrated Circuit
1 Space War Integrated Circuit
1 High Frequency Integrated Circuit
5 Capacitors, various sizes
1 Variable Capacitor
1 Motor Fan
5 Resistor, various sizes
1 Adjustable Resistor
2 Transistors (PNP, NPN)
2 Jumper Wires (Red, Black)
Full Color Instruction Manual, 45 pages (experiments 1-101)
Full Color Instruction Manual, 74 pages (experiments 102-305)
Full Color Instruction Manual, 62 pages (experiments 306-511)
Product Awards:
Dr. Toy, 100 Best Children's Products
Product Warnings & Safety Information:
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD - SMALL PARTS. This product contains small pieces and is not suitable for children under 3 years of age.
A NOTE FROM LAURI:
Ideal electronics kit for smaller hands, younger kids, and classrooms. The SNAP CIRCUITS line of products are particularly engaging for younger kids, smaller hands, and kids that have more difficulty with fine motor skills. The electronics components are built into the snap circuitry. For example, you can see that you are working with a resistor, but since it is encased in the snap circuit it is easier to manipulate with your fingers and hands, and far harder to loose on the floor because it is a larger piece. Because they are easy to manipulate, easy to snap into the circuit boards, and hard to lose, they are ideal for younger kids and for classrooms.
Kids love SNAP CIRCUITS. When I exhibit products at schools and at exhibitions, kids are constantly playing with my SNAP CIRCUITS sample. Without any instruction, they get it. They get how it works, they get how fun it is to make circuits.
Differences between SNAP CIRCUITS PRO and SNAP CIRCUITS 300. With SNAP CIRCUITS PRO, the additional parts that are included are: a Diode, an LED Display, an FM module, and Analog Meter, an SCR, a Relay, a Transformer, and a Recording Integrated Circuit. The additional 200 experiments incorporate these additional parts in order to make more advanced circuits.
Examples of additional projects in SNAP CIRCUITS PRO include FM Radio, Playback and Record, building complex circuits, experimenting with an adjustable resistor, converting AC current to DC, using the photoresistor to build light sensitive functions, time delayed circuits, and to create different sounds.
Differences between SNAP CIRCUITS and ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP products. In a nutshell, SNAP CIRCUITS are better for younger kids, classrooms, and electronic beginners. ELECTRONICS WORKSHOPs are better with teens, adults, and those that are very interested in more intermediate and advanced electronics.
For example, with SNAP CIRCUITS, you know you are working with a resistor because the encasing marks it as a resistor. However, SNAP CIRCUITS do not require you to know that the strength of resistors are universally identified by their colors of rings. With ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP you are actually working with the resistors and wires of the resistors. You learn how to identify what resistor strength you are working with based upon the colors of the rings, they are not marked with any kind of encasing.
With SNAP CIRCUITS, you build many different kinds of electronic circuits. You learn by having fun building the circuits. With ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP, as you progress in the manual, you build the circuits and you have to explain why they work the way they do based on what is happening with the individual components in the circuit. You learn because you are presented more with a puzzle that you need to figure out based on your growing knowledge of the individual components and their effect upon each other.
In conclusion, my general rule of thumb is to suggest SNAP CIRCUITS for ages 6-12, and ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP for ages 13 to adult. My husband is an electrical engineer and we gave our 6-year-old son SNAP CIRCUITS when he was 6 and they had a great time with it together. With the more advanced SNAP CIRCUITS, there is electronics included to hold interest all the way through ages 10-12.
When our son was 10 we tried ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP but concluded that he was still a bit too young to work with ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP independently. The circuits have to be followed perfectly to perform the functions as described and it was harder for him to diagnose what wasn't exactly right when the circuits did not perform as expected.
Both SNAP CIRCUITS and ELECTRONICS WORKSHOP are outstanding products to teach electrical engineering concepts. I wished I had had them before taking EE classes in college! |
