TED2011
AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on science with squishy circuits
AnnMarie Thomas：用溼軟電路動手做科學
Filmed:
Readability: 3.2
964,058 views
在TED U的一個簡短示範中，AnnMarie Thomas示範如何利用兩種不同口味的自製黏土來探討電的特性。其中包括點亮LED、旋轉馬達、和將孩子變成電路設計師。
AnnMarie Thomas - Educator
AnnMarie Thomas works on the playful side of engineering -- using cool tools to teach and help others. Full bio
AnnMarie Thomas works on the playful side of engineering -- using cool tools to teach and help others. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
I'm a huge believer in hands-on education.
0
0
3000
我非常相信親自動手做的學習方式。
00:19
But you have to have the right tools.
1
4000
2000
但你需要正確的工具。
00:21
If I'm going to teach my daughter about electronics,
2
6000
3000
如果我要教我女兒電學，
00:24
I'm not going to give her a soldering iron.
3
9000
2000
我不會給他洛鐵。
00:26
And similarly, she finds prototyping boards
4
11000
2000
同樣的，如果她用原型板
00:28
really frustrating for her little hands.
5
13000
3000
對她的小手來說是非常麻煩的。
00:31
So my wonderful student Sam and I
6
16000
3000
所以我的學生山姆和我
00:34
decided to look at the most tangible thing we could think of:
7
19000
2000
決定要用我們能想到最實際的東西：
00:36
Play-Doh.
8
21000
2000
黏土。
00:38
And so we spent a summer
9
23000
2000
所以我們花了一個暑假
00:40
looking at different Play-Doh recipes.
10
25000
2000
來找各種黏土的做法。
00:42
And these recipes probably look really familiar
11
27000
2000
而這些做法或許對那些曾經
00:44
to any of you who have made homemade play-dough --
12
29000
2000
做過自製黏土的人會覺得很熟悉，
00:46
pretty standard ingredients you probably have in your kitchen.
13
31000
3000
這些標準原料或許是你在廚房就已經有的。
00:49
We have two favorite recipes --
14
34000
2000
我們有兩個最喜歡的做法：
00:51
one that has these ingredients
15
36000
2000
一個有這些原料
00:53
and a second that had sugar instead of salt.
16
38000
2000
另一個將鹽改成糖。
00:55
And they're great. We can make great little sculptures with these.
17
40000
3000
而且他們很棒。我們可以做這些很棒的小雕塑品。
00:58
But the really cool thing about them is when we put them together.
18
43000
3000
但更酷的是如果你把他們放在一起，
01:01
You see that really salty Play-Doh?
19
46000
2000
你看到那個很鹹的黏土，
01:03
Well, it conducts electricity.
20
48000
2000
它會導電。
01:05
And this is nothing new.
21
50000
2000
而且這不是新發現。
01:07
It turns out that regular Play-Doh that you buy at the store conducts electricity,
22
52000
2000
其實市售的黏土也可以導電，
01:09
and high school physics teachers have used that for years.
23
54000
3000
且中學物理老師已經用這個好幾年了。
01:12
But our homemade play-dough
24
57000
2000
但我們這些自製的黏土
01:14
actually has half the resistance of commercial Play-Doh.
25
59000
2000
事實上電阻是市售的一半。
01:16
And that sugar dough?
26
61000
2000
那個糖黏土呢？
01:18
Well it's 150 times more resistant to electric current
27
63000
2000
它的電阻比鹽黏土大
01:20
than that salt dough.
28
65000
2000
一百五十倍。
01:22
So what does that mean?
29
67000
2000
這是什麼意思呢？
01:24
Well it means if you them together you suddenly have circuits --
30
69000
3000
意思是如果你把它們放在一起你就有了電路--
01:27
circuits that the most creative, tiny, little hands
31
72000
3000
一個很有創造力的小小手
01:30
can build on their own.
32
75000
3000
可以自行完成的電路。
01:33
(Applause)
33
78000
5000
（掌聲）
01:38
And so I want to do a little demo for you.
34
83000
3000
所以我要做個小示範。
01:42
So if I take this salt dough,
35
87000
2000
如果我拿這個鹽黏土--
01:44
again, it's like the play-dough you probably made as kids,
36
89000
2000
它跟你們小時候玩過的差不多--
01:46
and I plug it in --
37
91000
2000
然後我將它通電--
01:48
it's a two-lead battery pack, simple battery pack,
38
93000
3000
這是個二鉛電池組，很簡單的電池組--
01:51
you can buy them at Radio Shack
39
96000
2000
你可以在Radio Shack
01:53
and pretty much anywhere else --
40
98000
2000
或是其他很多地方都買的到--
01:55
we can actually then
41
100000
3000
我們真的可以
01:58
light things up.
42
103000
3000
讓燈亮起來。
02:02
But if any of you have studied electrical engineering,
43
107000
2000
但如果在座各位有學電路工程，
02:04
we can also create a short circuit.
44
109000
2000
我們也可以創造短路。
02:06
If I push these together, the light turns off.
45
111000
3000
如果我把這些放在一起，燈會暗掉。
02:09
Right, the current wants to run through the play-dough, not through that LED.
46
114000
2000
好，電路會想要通過黏土而不是LED燈。
02:11
If I separate them again, I have some light.
47
116000
2000
如果我把它們分開，我又有燈光了。
02:13
Well now if I take that sugar dough,
48
118000
2000
現在如果我拿那糖黏土，
02:15
the sugar dough doesn't want to conduct electricity.
49
120000
2000
糖黏土不想要傳導電流，
02:17
It's like a wall to the electricity.
50
122000
2000
有點像是擋住電流的牆壁。
02:19
If I place that between, now all the dough is touching,
51
124000
3000
如果我把它放在中間，現在所有黏土都有接觸，
02:22
but if I stick that light back in,
52
127000
2000
但當我把燈放回去的時候，
02:24
I have light.
53
129000
2000
燈會亮。
02:26
In fact, I could even add some movement to my sculptures.
54
131000
3000
事實上，我還可以在我的雕塑品中加入一些動作。
02:29
If I want a spinning tail, let's grab a motor,
55
134000
2000
如果我想要一條旋轉尾巴，我們可以拿一個馬達，
02:31
put some play-dough on it, stick it on
56
136000
3000
覆上一些黏土，黏上去，
02:34
and we have spinning.
57
139000
2000
我們就可以讓它轉了。
02:36
(Applause)
58
141000
4000
（掌聲）
02:40
And once you have the basics,
59
145000
2000
當你會這些基本的以後，
02:42
we can make a slightly more complicated circuit.
60
147000
2000
我們就可以做複雜的電路了。
02:44
We call this our sushi circuit. It's very popular with kids.
61
149000
3000
我們叫這個壽司電路，非常受孩子們喜愛。
02:47
I plug in again the power to it.
62
152000
3000
我將它插電。
02:50
And now I can start talking about parallel and series circuits.
63
155000
3000
現在我可以探討串聯和並聯。
02:53
I can start plugging in lots of lights.
64
158000
3000
我可以放進很多個燈泡。
02:58
And we can start talking about things like electrical load.
65
163000
3000
我們可以開始探討電負載量。
03:01
What happens if I put in lots of lights
66
166000
2000
當我放進很多燈泡
03:03
and then add a motor?
67
168000
2000
又放進馬達時會怎麼樣？
03:05
It'll dim.
68
170000
2000
燈泡會變暗。
03:07
We can even add microprocessors
69
172000
3000
我們也可以放入微處理器，
03:10
and have this as an input
70
175000
2000
用這個當作輸入
03:12
and create squishy sound music that we've done.
71
177000
3000
然後創造模湖的音效。
03:15
You could do parallel and series circuits
72
180000
2000
你可以與孩子用這個
03:17
for kids using this.
73
182000
3000
做出並連和電路組合。
03:20
So this is all in your home kitchen.
74
185000
3000
所以這些都是你廚房裡有的東西。
03:23
We've actually tried to turn it into an electrical engineering lab.
75
188000
3000
我們試著將它改造成電機工程實驗室。
03:26
We have a website, it's all there. These are the home recipes.
76
191000
3000
我們有個網站，所有東西都在上面。這些是家庭中製作的方法。
03:29
We've got some videos. You can make them yourselves.
77
194000
2000
我們有些影片。你們也可以自己做。
03:31
And it's been really fun since we put them up to see where these have gone.
78
196000
3000
很有趣的是我們可以知道這個計畫影響了什麼。
03:34
We've had a mom in Utah who used them with her kids,
79
199000
2000
有個在猶他的媽媽和他的孩子用這個
03:36
to a science researcher in the U.K.,
80
201000
2000
做了一個在英國的科學實驗，
03:38
and curriculum developers in Hawaii.
81
203000
3000
夏威夷的教材研究也用了這個。
03:41
So I would encourage you all to grab some Play-Doh,
82
206000
2000
所以我鼓勵你們拿起一些黏土，
03:43
grab some salt, grab some sugar and start playing.
83
208000
3000
拿一些鹽、一些糖，然後開始玩。
03:46
We don't usually think of our kitchen as an electrical engineering lab
84
211000
3000
我們不常把廚房當作電機實驗室，
03:49
or little kids as circuit designers,
85
214000
2000
也不會把小朋友想成電路設計師，
03:51
but maybe we should.
86
216000
2000
但或許我們應該要這麼想。
03:53
Have fun. Thank you.
87
218000
2000
好好玩！謝謝。
03:55
(Applause)
88
220000
7000
（掌聲）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
AnnMarie Thomas - EducatorAnnMarie Thomas works on the playful side of engineering -- using cool tools to teach and help others.
Why you should listen
AnnMarie Thomas joined the faculty of the University of St. Thomas in the fall of 2006. Previously, she was a faculty member at Art Center College of Design. She is the director of the UST Design laboratory and leads a team of students looking at both the playful side of engineering (squishy circuits for students, the science of circus, toy design) and ways to use engineering design to help others (projects in technology design for older adults). Thomas, in partnership with collaborator Jan Hansen, is co-director of the University of St. Thomas Center for Pre-Collegiate Engineering Education (CPCEE).
Thomas teaches Engineering Graphics, Machine Design, Dynamics (with Circus Lab), Toy Design, Product Design for an Aging Population, and Brain Machine Interfaces (seminar). She organizes the School of Engineering Design Night (featuring the ENGR320 Machine Design competition), and the Design Discussions seminar series.
Thomas has also worked on underwater robotics (at MIT, Caltech and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute), specializing in biologically inspired propulsion. She has consulted on projects ranging from the design/creation of a "musical earthquake-playing robot" to the initial research for a book on earthquakes in Los Angeles. At Caltech, she founded the Caltech Robotics Outreach Group (CROG) and the Caltech/JPL/LEGO Middle School Robotics Conference.
Get the recipes for the two squishy circuits play doughs here >>
AnnMarie Thomas | Speaker | TED.com