Electronics Everywhere
The UKESF works in partnership with the University of Southampton on “Electronics Everywhere”, a collaborative project featuring the Music Mixer circuit board and the Logic & Arithmetic Kit, hands-on activities that teach core Electronics concepts for A-level Physics and Computer Science students respectively. Scroll down to learn more about the two kits.
The “Electronics Everywhere” projects are supplied free of charge to schools in the state sector; they come with CPD training for teachers and a range of supporting materials.
To find out how to get your school involved, please email [email protected].
In a 2021 survey of schools that have received “Electronics Everywhere” kits, 80% of teachers rated the kits ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ as a teaching aid. The overall reaction from pupils that used the kits was 95% positive, and 60% were more enthused about Electronics as a result.
Music Mixer
Following the success of The IET-funded pilot in 2017, the project was significantly up-scaled for 2018 with generous support from the ERA Foundation and 15 companies in the Electronics sector and has continued to grow since then. Working with supporter companies and the Institute of Physics, the focus is to provide secondary schools with classroom resources and train their Physics teachers in Electronics.
The teaching tool is centred around the ‘Music Mixer’ circuit, which combines two audio signals, for example music from mobile phones, and encourages students to control the volume by experimenting with different electronic components, thus learning about electronic sensors (e.g. LDRs) and resistor dividers. The design exposes all components and demystifies the electronics for the students. Find out more here.
Download the guides:
“Having the devices on a PCB allows the learner to focus on changing parameters, taking values and getting a real understanding. No time is lost to fiddling with wires … This board is brilliant – I love it and know it is a fantastic piece of kit.”
“The kit really allowed me to focus in on the lesson as it removes the set up … The students were engaged as they have never experienced of this type of Electronics before. The results they get are fantastic.”
Logic & Arithmetic Kit
Following the success of the Music Mixer circuit board, in 2018 the UKESF continued its partnership with the University of Southampton by supporting the Logic & Arithmetic Kit. Through The IET’s Engineering Education Grant Scheme we secured funding to develop the boards further and undertake a successful pilot project. Southampton now runs online training sessions for Computer Science teachers and we provide classroom kits for their schools.
The Logic & Arithmetic Kit features hands-on activities with two circuit boards that teach core Electronics concepts for A-level Computer Science students. The kit covers aspects of Boolean operations, logic gates and base 2 (binary) number systems, and is split into two sections: Logic and Arithmetic. Find out more here.
Download the guides:
Logic & Arithmetic Kit – Student Guide
“These are wonderful – my students loved the challenges and it really helped them to understand logic gates and adders.”
“This is normally a very abstract area to teach. By creating a physical product, my students were able to solve problems through experimentation and discussion, which they completely loved. We were then able to take this to circuitverse and develop much more complicated circuits (such as a basic alu) very easily. I credit this down to the fact that their confidence had been increased significantly. The only problem now is getting them to leave at break and lunch.”
To find out how your school could receive the kit/s, CPD training for teachers and a range of supporting materials free of charge (state sector only), please send an email to [email protected].
The following companies are sponsoring schools to receive “Electronics Everywhere” kits in 2020/21:
