Mentor Hours 2

I went back to my mentor's workshop and he gave me some starter kits to get me started. The two basic kits aren't necessarily robotic, but the kit basically provides you with various supplies that you have to figure out how to turn into a balloon-powered race car or hover craft. They come with instructions, but you're only allowed to look at them if you're truly stumped. The "ages 10 and up" sticker was very misleading. Although my mentor told me not to actually start building it, he told me to look at all the pieces and come up with a list of tools I would need to construct it. It was a lot harder than I thought. I sat there for at least an hour and spent 30 minutes looking at two kits trying to imagine a race car or hover craft in my mind. He explained to me that working with these kits would help me understand the mechanical part of robotics better and would help him get a better understanding of how I think.

On top of the two puzzle kits, my mentor also introduced me to electronic snap circuits. It's a beginner's circuit board that uses snap buttons like the ones found on clothes in order to introduce the idea of connecting pieces of a circuit board together without having to deal with the tiny parts of an actual circuit board. He explained that although the snap circuits are usually meant for children, some colleges that teach high school level electronics courses use them. So I didn't feel as bad. Plus, the large pieces and variety of colors made the idea of working with circuit boards for the first time look much less intimidating. I did not get to actually start working with the snap circuits, but my mentor gave me two small books about the snap circuits and the projects we could do with them to read over the weekend. There's actually a lot to do with one simple kit. He's slowly easing me into working with actual electronic parts. Next meeting, he will begin helping me construct the race car and hover craft and give me a project from the snap circuits to take home.

Hours Earned: 2 hours
Total Hours: 3 hours