TED2011
AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on science with squishy circuits
安玛丽·托马斯：用柔软的电路来亲身实践科学
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在TED U的一场充满活力的演示中，安玛丽·托马斯展示了两种不同风格的自制橡皮泥，这些橡皮泥能用于演示电气性能 -- 通过点亮LED灯，让马达旋转，这把小孩子们变成了电路设计师。
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.
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我是亲自实践教育的忠实拥护者。
00:19
But you have to have the right tools.
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但必须有合适的工具。
00:21
If I'm going to teach my daughter about electronics,
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如果我准备教我女儿电子学，
00:24
I'm not going to give her a soldering iron.
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我不会给她一个烙铁。
00:26
And similarly, she finds prototyping boards
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同样地，她发现模型
00:28
really frustrating for her little hands.
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确实让她的小手觉得挫折。
00:31
So my wonderful student Sam and I
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因此我的好学生山姆和我
00:34
decided to look at the most tangible thing we could think of:
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决定看看我们能想到的最切实的东西，
00:36
Play-Doh.
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橡皮泥。
00:38
And so we spent a summer
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我们花了一个夏天来
00:40
looking at different Play-Doh recipes.
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考察各种不同的橡皮泥制作配方。
00:42
And these recipes probably look really familiar
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这些配方看起来非常相似
00:44
to any of you who have made homemade play-dough --
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在座各位都可以在家中制作橡皮泥 --
00:46
pretty standard ingredients you probably have in your kitchen.
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就用各位的厨房里大概都有的相当普通的佐料。
00:49
We have two favorite recipes --
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我们有两个最喜欢的配方 --
00:51
one that has these ingredients
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一个包含这些成分
00:53
and a second that had sugar instead of salt.
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第二个的配方中用的是糖而不是盐。
00:55
And they're great. We can make great little sculptures with these.
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它们非常棒。我们能用这些做出很棒的小雕塑。
00:58
But the really cool thing about them is when we put them together.
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当我们把它们放在一起，真正酷的事发生了。
01:01
You see that really salty Play-Doh?
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这是咸的橡皮泥，
01:03
Well, it conducts electricity.
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它能导电。
01:05
And this is nothing new.
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这不是什么新鲜事儿。
01:07
It turns out that regular Play-Doh that you buy at the store conducts electricity,
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其实在商店里购买的正规的橡皮泥都能导电，
01:09
and high school physics teachers have used that for years.
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高中物理老师已经使用了很多年了。
01:12
But our homemade play-dough
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但我们自制的橡皮泥
01:14
actually has half the resistance of commercial Play-Doh.
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实际上只有市场上橡皮泥电阻的一半。
01:16
And that sugar dough?
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那个糖橡皮泥呢？
01:18
Well it's 150 times more resistant to electric current
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它的电阻是咸橡皮泥的
01:20
than that salt dough.
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150倍。
01:22
So what does that mean?
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那么，这意味着什么？
01:24
Well it means if you them together you suddenly have circuits --
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这意味着把它们放在一起，突然间你就有了电路 --
01:27
circuits that the most creative, tiny, little hands
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可以由富有创造力的小手们制作而成
01:30
can build on their own.
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的电路。
01:33
(Applause)
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（掌声）
01:38
And so I want to do a little demo for you.
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那么我来为你们做个小小的演示。
01:42
So if I take this salt dough,
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如果我拿着这个咸橡皮泥 --
01:44
again, it's like the play-dough you probably made as kids,
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再说一次，这就像是各位在孩童时期玩的橡皮泥 --
01:46
and I plug it in --
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我把它插入 --
01:48
it's a two-lead battery pack, simple battery pack,
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这是一个双极式铅蓄电池，普通的电池 --
01:51
you can buy them at Radio Shack
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可以在Radio Shack买到
01:53
and pretty much anywhere else --
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几乎任何地方都有卖 --
01:55
we can actually then
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我们能让
01:58
light things up.
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灯亮起来。
02:02
But if any of you have studied electrical engineering,
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但如果你们中有人学过电气工程的话，
02:04
we can also create a short circuit.
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我们也可以做出个短路来。
02:06
If I push these together, the light turns off.
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如果我把它们放在一起，灯就灭了。
02:09
Right, the current wants to run through the play-dough, not through that LED.
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是的，电流会通过橡皮泥，而不是通过那个LED灯。
02:11
If I separate them again, I have some light.
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如果我分开它们，灯就亮了。
02:13
Well now if I take that sugar dough,
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现在，如果我用糖橡皮泥，
02:15
the sugar dough doesn't want to conduct electricity.
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糖橡皮泥并不导电。
02:17
It's like a wall to the electricity.
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它像是一堵阻挡电流通过的墙。
02:19
If I place that between, now all the dough is touching,
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如果我把它放在中间，所有的橡皮泥都接触在一起，
02:22
but if I stick that light back in,
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但如果我把灯插回去，
02:24
I have light.
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灯亮了。
02:26
In fact, I could even add some movement to my sculptures.
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实际上，我甚至能在我的雕塑上加些运动的部件。
02:29
If I want a spinning tail, let's grab a motor,
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如果想要个旋转的尾巴，就找个马达来，
02:31
put some play-dough on it, stick it on
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在上面放些橡皮泥，插上去，
02:34
and we have spinning.
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就会开始旋转了。
02:36
(Applause)
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（掌声）
02:40
And once you have the basics,
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一旦有了这些基础，
02:42
we can make a slightly more complicated circuit.
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我们就能制作一个稍微复杂些的电路了。
02:44
We call this our sushi circuit. It's very popular with kids.
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我们称这个为寿司电路。它非常受孩子们的欢迎。
02:47
I plug in again the power to it.
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我把电源插上去。
02:50
And now I can start talking about parallel and series circuits.
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现在我可以开始讲讲并联和串联电路了。
02:53
I can start plugging in lots of lights.
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我能插上很多灯泡。
02:58
And we can start talking about things like electrical load.
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我们也能开始谈谈像电力负荷这类事情了。
03:01
What happens if I put in lots of lights
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如果我放上许多的灯泡
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and then add a motor?
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然后再加上一个马达，会怎样？
03:05
It'll dim.
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灯变暗了。
03:07
We can even add microprocessors
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我们甚至能加入微处理器
03:10
and have this as an input
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用这个作为输入
03:12
and create squishy sound music that we've done.
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并创造出轻柔的音乐，我们曾这么做过。
03:15
You could do parallel and series circuits
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可以让孩子们用这个来做
03:17
for kids using this.
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并联或串联电路。
03:20
So this is all in your home kitchen.
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这些在家里的厨房中就能做到。
03:23
We've actually tried to turn it into an electrical engineering lab.
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实际上我们尝试过把它变成一个电气工程实验室。
03:26
We have a website, it's all there. These are the home recipes.
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我们有个网站，上面什么都有。这些是配方。
03:29
We've got some videos. You can make them yourselves.
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我们还有些视频。大家可以自己制作它们。
03:31
And it's been really fun since we put them up to see where these have gone.
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因为把这些东西制作出来并看着它们成功运行，实在是很有趣。
03:34
We've had a mom in Utah who used them with her kids,
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在犹他州有位母亲，与她的孩子们一起玩这些橡皮泥，
03:36
to a science researcher in the U.K.,
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她的孩子成了英国的科学研究员
03:38
and curriculum developers in Hawaii.
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并在夏威夷开发新课程。
03:41
So I would encourage you all to grab some Play-Doh,
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因此我鼓励各位都抓把橡皮泥，
03:43
grab some salt, grab some sugar and start playing.
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抓些盐，抓些糖，开始玩儿吧。
03:46
We don't usually think of our kitchen as an electrical engineering lab
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我们并不常把我们的厨房想象成电气工程实验室
03:49
or little kids as circuit designers,
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或把小孩子们想象成电路设计师，
03:51
but maybe we should.
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但也许我们应该这么做。
03:53
Have fun. Thank you.
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玩得开心。谢谢
03:55
(Applause)
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（掌声）
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