ABOUT THE SPEAKER
AnnMarie Thomas - Educator
AnnMarie 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 >>

More profile about the speaker
AnnMarie Thomas | Speaker | TED.com
TED2011

AnnMarie Thomas: Hands-on science with squishy circuits

AnnMarie Thomas: Ciência Experimental com Circuitos de Massinha

Filmed:
964,058 views

Nesta rápida demonstração na TED U, AnnMarie Thomas mostra como dois tipos diferentes de massinha de modelar caseira podem ser usados para demonstrar propriedades elétricas ao acender LEDs ou fazer funcionar pequenos motores, transformando, assim, pequenas crianças em desenvolvedoras de circuitos.
- Educator
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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Eu acredito muito na educação prática
00:19
But you have to have the right tools.
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Mas você precisa ter as ferramentas certas.
00:21
If I'm going to teach my daughter about electronics,
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Se eu vou ensinar eletrônica para a minha filha,
00:24
I'm not going to give her a soldering iron.
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Eu não vou dar uma solda na mão dela.
00:26
And similarly, she finds prototyping boards
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E com placas de ensaio, o problema é o mesmo, porquê elas
00:28
really frustrating for her little hands.
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são impróprias e frustrantes por causa de suas mãos pequenas.
00:31
So my wonderful student Sam and I
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Então, eu e uma maravilhosa estudante, Sam,
00:34
decided to look at the most tangible thing we could think of:
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decidimos usar a coisa mais fácil em que pudemos pensar:
00:36
Play-Doh.
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massinha de modelar.
00:38
And so we spent a summer
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Então, nós passamos um verão inteiro
00:40
looking at different Play-Doh recipes.
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procurando receitas diferentes para massinha de modelar caseira.
00:42
And these recipes probably look really familiar
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Essas receitas podem parecer familiares
00:44
to any of you who have made homemade play-dough --
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para um de vocês que já tenha feito massinha em casa -
00:46
pretty standard ingredients you probably have in your kitchen.
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pois usa ingredientes comuns nas suas cozinhas.
00:49
We have two favorite recipes --
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Nós temos duas receitas favoritas
00:51
one that has these ingredients
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uma que tem água, farinha, sal, óleo vegetal e creme de tártaro
00:53
and a second that had sugar instead of salt.
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e uma segunda, que usa açúcar em vez de sal.
00:55
And they're great. We can make great little sculptures with these.
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E elas são ótimas. Nós podemos fazer lindas pequenas esculturas com elas.
00:58
But the really cool thing about them is when we put them together.
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Mas legal mesmo é quando você junta elas.
01:01
You see that really salty Play-Doh?
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Sabe, aquela massinha bastante salgada
01:03
Well, it conducts electricity.
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conduz eletricidade.
01:05
And this is nothing new.
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E isso não é nenhuma novidade.
01:07
It turns out that regular Play-Doh that you buy at the store conducts electricity,
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Na verdade, a massinha vendida comercialmente conduz eletricidade também,
01:09
and high school physics teachers have used that for years.
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e professores de física vêm usando elas por anos.
01:12
But our homemade play-dough
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Mas a nossa massinha caseira
01:14
actually has half the resistance of commercial Play-Doh.
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tem metade da resistência da massinha comercial.
01:16
And that sugar dough?
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E a massinha doce?
01:18
Well it's 150 times more resistant to electric current
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Bem, ela é 150 vezes mais resistente à corrente elétrica
01:20
than that salt dough.
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que a massinha salgada.
01:22
So what does that mean?
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Então o que isso significa?
01:24
Well it means if you them together you suddenly have circuits --
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Significa que, se você junta as duas, você tem circuitos --
01:27
circuits that the most creative, tiny, little hands
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circuitos que as mais criativas pequenas mãozinhas
01:30
can build on their own.
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podem construir sozinhas.
01:33
(Applause)
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(Aplausos da plateia)
01:38
And so I want to do a little demo for you.
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Então eu quero fazer uma pequena demonstração para vocês.
01:42
So if I take this salt dough,
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Se eu pegar essa massinha salgada
01:44
again, it's like the play-dough you probably made as kids,
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- repetindo, é como a massinha que você já deve ter feito em casa -
01:46
and I plug it in --
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e eu ligo elas a uma bateria
01:48
it's a two-lead battery pack, simple battery pack,
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- umas bateria comum,
01:51
you can buy them at Radio Shack
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daquelas que você compra
01:53
and pretty much anywhere else --
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em qualquer supermercado -
01:55
we can actually then
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nós podemos então, realmente,
01:58
light things up.
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acender as coisas.
02:02
But if any of you have studied electrical engineering,
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Mas, se algum de vocês estudou engenharia elétrica,
02:04
we can also create a short circuit.
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nós podemos fazer um curto-circuito.
02:06
If I push these together, the light turns off.
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Se eu junto essas duas, a luz apaga
02:09
Right, the current wants to run through the play-dough, not through that LED.
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porqquê a corrente passa pela massinha, não pelo LED.
02:11
If I separate them again, I have some light.
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Se eu as separo de novo, temos luz.
02:13
Well now if I take that sugar dough,
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Agora, se eu pego aquela massinha doce,
02:15
the sugar dough doesn't want to conduct electricity.
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ela não conduz eletricidade.
02:17
It's like a wall to the electricity.
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É como uma parede, um isolamento.
02:19
If I place that between, now all the dough is touching,
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Se eu coloco ela no meio, todas as massinhas estão se tocando,
02:22
but if I stick that light back in,
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mas se eu coloco a lâmpada de volta,
02:24
I have light.
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eu tenho luz.
02:26
In fact, I could even add some movement to my sculptures.
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Na verdade, eu posso até adicionar movimento à minha escultura.
02:29
If I want a spinning tail, let's grab a motor,
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Se eu quiser uma parte giratória, pegamos um motor.
02:31
put some play-dough on it, stick it on
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coloco um pouco de massinha, enfio na escultura
02:34
and we have spinning.
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e temos rotação.
02:36
(Applause)
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(Aplausos da plateia)
02:40
And once you have the basics,
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E, quando você já sabe o básico,
02:42
we can make a slightly more complicated circuit.
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pode começar a fazer um circuito um pouquinho mais complicado.
02:44
We call this our sushi circuit. It's very popular with kids.
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O nome desse é circuito sushi. É muito popular com as crianças.
02:47
I plug in again the power to it.
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Eu ligo de novo a energia nele,
02:50
And now I can start talking about parallel and series circuits.
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e temos circuitos série e circuitos paralelos.
02:53
I can start plugging in lots of lights.
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Eu posso plugar várias lâmpadas,
02:58
And we can start talking about things like electrical load.
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e podemos começar a falar em carga elétrica
03:01
What happens if I put in lots of lights
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O que acontece se eu plugo várias luzes
03:03
and then add a motor?
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e adiciono um motor?
03:05
It'll dim.
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Sua corrente vai variar.
03:07
We can even add microprocessors
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Nós podemos colocar até microprocessadores
03:10
and have this as an input
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e usar isso como uma entrada
03:12
and create squishy sound music that we've done.
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e criar músicas com os circuitos.
03:15
You could do parallel and series circuits
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Você pode fazer circuitos série e paralelos
03:17
for kids using this.
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para crianças, usando isso.
03:20
So this is all in your home kitchen.
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Tudo isso está na cozinha da sua casa.
03:23
We've actually tried to turn it into an electrical engineering lab.
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Nós tentamos transformar ela num laboratório caseira de engenharia elétrica.
03:26
We have a website, it's all there. These are the home recipes.
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Nós temos um site, está tudo lá. Essas são as receitas caseiras.
03:29
We've got some videos. You can make them yourselves.
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Nós temos vídeos, mas vocês também podem fazer os seus
03:31
And it's been really fun since we put them up to see where these have gone.
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E vem sendo bem legal saber onde eles foram paras.
03:34
We've had a mom in Utah who used them with her kids,
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Nós soubemos de uma mãe em Utah que usou eles com os filhos,
03:36
to a science researcher in the U.K.,
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um pesquisador do Reino Unido
03:38
and curriculum developers in Hawaii.
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e até educadores no Havaí.
03:41
So I would encourage you all to grab some Play-Doh,
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Então eu sugiro pra todos vocês que peguem massinha,
03:43
grab some salt, grab some sugar and start playing.
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sal, açúcar e comecem a brincar.
03:46
We don't usually think of our kitchen as an electrical engineering lab
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Nós geralmente não pensamos na nossa cozinha como um laboratório de engenharia,
03:49
or little kids as circuit designers,
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ou em nossos filhos como desenvolvedores de circuitos,
03:51
but maybe we should.
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mas talvez nós devíamos.
03:53
Have fun. Thank you.
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Divirtam-se. Obrigado.
03:55
(Applause)
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(Aplauso)
Translated by Martim Cutum
Reviewed by Rafael Eufrasio

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
AnnMarie Thomas - Educator
AnnMarie 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 >>

More profile about the speaker
AnnMarie Thomas | Speaker | TED.com