A resistor, a transistor and a reel of copper wire

There's nothing like unschooling with a 10 and 11 year old to remind you of all the things you don't know. My own ignorance around all things scientific was brought home to me recently, not only from the book I've been reading where a young boy can take apart radios and rebuild them, but also from a card game.

My sister sent us this card game about scientists in history. The game basically has cards with different scientists on each one. There are a series of clues to guess the identity of each person. We struggled and my children made a decision that we should each take one card, learn more about the scientist, and teach each other about him or her.

My eldest decided to investigate Nikola Tesla, and it was this decision that led to my realisation that I knew so little about basic scientific theory. Her research led her to want to make a Tesla coil. At this point my husband, who usually takes on such projects, was away. Much as I wanted to delay and hand the project over to him on his return, I resolved to help her make it.

We had to visit an electronics store (extra intimidating for me as were the only females of the species apart from the cashier) and order various parts. A resistor, a transistor, a reel of copper wire, a 9V battery, some thin cable. At home the project also involved the use of the soldering iron, a skill we clearly need to work on. After several attempts we finally finished connecting everything. The coil doesn't work. But we made it. And maybe we can make it work somehow.

Since the making day we have been discovering how resistors and transistors work. I feel I should already know this stuff. Maybe I just didn't pay attention in school. Or maybe we didn't learn about these things. Or maybe, like so many things, we learnt about them in an abstract way, in the classroom, without ever actually putting them to use.

Our next scientist was Schrodinger. Finding out more about his theories has been a little mind bending. I mean, is this blog actually here? Or is it somewhere else?