Exploring the World of Electronic Devices Curriculum Links Technology: Knowledge and Understanding Capability, Society Social Studies: Place and Environment English: Speaking, Listening, Writing, Presenting Links to: Art, Science, Mathematics. Levels 2-4   Tuning In Groups brainstorm and list all the electrical, electronic and communication devices/machines that are commonly found in the school and at home. Have them list these for both the home and school on a room by room basis, eg microwave in the kitchen, television in the lounge, photocopier in the school office. Turn this into a room by room table. Collage and Captions Assign groups specific rooms and have them cut out pictures from newspapers, magazines, flyers. Draw the room and paste each device in the appropriate place. Each pupil writes a short caption, naming the device and a brief explanation of its purpose. Combine group rooms to make a large class mural. Have each group explain their devices, why they are there and read their captions. Who Knows How To? Find out how many pupils can operate the devices, eg who can work a tape recorder? who can work a cell phone? who can work a coffee grinder? who can work a computer? who can work a video machine? Collate results in graphic form (eg pictogram, line graph, pie graph) and have the pupils discuss the results, eg 20 members of our class can programme a video to record a programme, only 4 people in our class can work the photocopier … Write and Learn Have pupils write an instruction sheet to show other people how to work a selected device that they are familiar with. Older students could be challenged to make a set of instructions in numbered diagrammatic form with a minimum of written instructions. Try out these instructions on other members of the group. Discuss and amend as necessary. Older students can follow the instructions that came with an appliance or device and then give the instructions a rating out of ten. Can they suggest any improvements to the instructions? Parent and Community Survey Extend the survey into the community to find out how many adults can or can't work various appliances or devices. Display the results in graphic or table form and compare with the class survey. Question the adults to find out why they have difficulty working certain devices. Publish results. Interview older friends who remember times when these devices or appliances didn't exist. Ask them if they think that life has been made easier by their invention. Do they think that life has improved because of them? Why or why not. How did they perform the tasks then that these devices are now designed for? Imagine If ! Select common devices such as toasters, TV's, videos. Can the students imagine what life was like without these devices? How would people cope? Conduct interviews with older friends. Have each student write a short paragraph explaining what life was like before these devices existed. Have students list the number of devices and appliances that they would use in a normal day. Challenge them to plan and take part in a day when they will not use any of them for any purpose. Discuss what happened? What did they find the most difficult? What did they enjoy? What did they do? Did they learn any new skills because of this? Promote, Learn and Imagine Plan and run an instructional day for other classes and parents on the correct and safe use of electrical and electronic devices. Award certificates of competence. Invite an electrician/technician to talk about safety and maintenance of electronic devices. Challenge groups/individuals to identify an area of life where the invention of a new electronic device is necessary. Design, build, sketch this new device. These devices could be totally practical or just highly imaginative. Do you have a lesson you would like to share with other teachers? Simply email us an attached Word, Works or PDF file and we will add it to our library. Don't forget to include your name and school so we can acknowledge your work.