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Electric Circuits Kit Book Review by Kevin Dayton
Edamar, Inc.1914 North Roan St.
Suite 106-101
Johnson City, TN 37601
423-794-6222
http://kitbook.com/
In their acknowledgements at the beginning of the Electric Circuits Kit Book, the two authors thank God, through whom all things are possible. This kit glorifies God through its explanations of one of the astounding aspects of His creation: electricity.
The brightly colored and compact Kit Book is packaged to combine the textbook with the science kit. It features a 62-page spiral notebook attached to a plastic case with a foldout "Power Page" and slots to store dozens of parts for activities. The text and diagrams are easy to read and understand, and the layout is attractive.
Following a brief chapter ("Getting Started") that introduces basic concepts of electricity, the kit outlines hands-on activities to show how these concepts work in practice. Students learn about simple circuits, batteries, conductors and insulators, switches, series circuits, parallel circuits, and electromagnetism. They are instructed to make circuits that light up bulbs, sound off a buzzer, engage a motor to spin a wheel, and create an electromagnetic field.
My seven-year-old son was enthralled by the activities and especially enjoyed working on them in partnership with his father. He was quickly using a push switch to send Morse code messages--once he figured out that he needed to connect positives with negatives to make the circuit work. The activities provide excellent exercises in logical thinking.
Minor quibbles with the Kit Book include a typographical error referring to a diagram on the left (when it is actually on the right) and an unexpected need for a second AA battery that the user is instructed to "temporarily borrow" from a classmate or teacher.
I detested an electrical class I took in junior high school to fulfill my public school district's mandatory Industrial Arts program. For this reason, I was not looking forward to working with this Kit Book. But I very much enjoyed using it, and so did my son. This is an excellent way to introduce children in Grades 4-6 to electronics.
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