That must have taken a long time to make. Very well done indeed Emma. You have set a VERY high standard of work there. :)

I was wondering how Emma got interested in working with Python and soldering. Would love to get my nieces (8 and 5 this summer) started down a similar path.

Well done!:-). I am 11and learnt to solder when I was 9. I was doing scratch but upgraded tplo py3.3. I use pi to run minecraft, scratch, python and google drive. I have only just began python and you being in year2 and doing it is amaizing! My python is only the kind of print label use string kind of thing and soodering put wire on plug terminal and handle solder awkwardly while burning wooden table and getting soodrr.all over it and then forget capacitors and melt wires and activate curcit braker and turn off computer while dad is doing work on it.

That’s amazing! Well done Emma, you definitely deserve an ‘A’ :-)

I can’t help but say it.

I’m more interested in what contributions Emma has done on this project. Things like this make it very hard for the teachers to determine who did what. I’m sure most of us could do Gr. 2 with much more skill and finesse if we were to do it again. But if you’re helping someone out, maybe we shouldn’t be so obvious about it. Your child will thank you.

“…if you’re helping someone out, maybe we shouldn’t be so obvious about it.” Just make sure you have the facts. My 6th grade science fair project was building a pulsed UV nitrogen laser, based on C. L. Stong’s June 1974 Scientific American article. It was mine from start to finish, and I spent quite a bit of time in the library studying laser operation. This project did not win and I was told privately, some judges marked me down because no 6th grader could do this on his own and surely my dad (a university prof) did most of it. In fact my dad helped me with two equations, but it wasn’t his field and by the end I knew more about lasers than he did. In truth a blue ribbon means nothing, the real reward was the education. But it certainly rankled at the time.

Way to go, Emma – I know patience is not a strong suite for many adults, much less kids, but I applaud the fact that you not only started something cool, but saw it through conclusion (which was nothing short of amazing).

Keep up the good work!

I really love what RBpi is providing to everyone! Emma did my childhood dream, I cant imagine how happy I would be if this happen to me. I love electronic stuffs, but I started work on it just few years ago… ;)

At least we now have ubiquitous, cheap, uploadable video at our disposal. This reminds me of what it’s like to build an experimental aircraft. The FAA requires that the builder fabricate and assemble at least 51% of an aircraft in order to meet the regulations for designating an aircraft as an experimental “home-built” (professionally-built experimental aircraft have to meet commercial aircraft standards, and then some). They essentially count each “operation” as a unique step, which includes drilling one hole, installing one fastener (rivet/bolt/nut/screw/washer assembly), adding a part or subassembly to another, preparing for and then applying paint to each part (each a separate operation), etc. As long as the final tally results in 51% of the operations having been accomplished by the builder (and there can be more than one builder, as long as they are not compensated in any way other than shared ownership and flight-related operations, or sale of parts at/below their cost to one another), it qualifies.

We used to have photos taken of themselves performing each task, but now many of us just let a digital video camera do the work and we edit it down to “Just the facts, Ma’am.” In either case, we typically post our progress on the WWW, which we can then refer the FAA inspector to for verification of our work during the aircraft certification process.

It seems like that’s what amazing kids like Emma need to do nowadays to disprove any doubters out there on the Intertubes (it appears that may have already been done, at least to some degree). However, if you spend just a few minutes talking to such outstanding examples of achievement, it quickly becomes obvious what work they did or did not perform. I sure wish I had today’s video capability back when I built one of the first IR LED-phototransistor communications systems for an eighth grade science fair project, and was grilled mercilessly by adult engineers until it was obvious I knew more about it than they did. I had done experiments underwater using what I had built after through-air measurements, and documented dispersion and absorption (it turns out that water vapor alone is really good at absorbing IR, much less liquid water!). I did win an award including a very expensive and detailed book from a military electronics organization about satellite communications that I still have.

GO EMMA!!!

That’s the kind of stuff I would of done if I had a rpi when I was that age!

Unfortunately there are probably lots of children who can solder at that age. They are working in sweatshops in the far east.

But well done to Emma on an excellent project.

Well done Emma, and well done young Jim!

At that age I would have found the grilling the hardest part to deal with, and would probably have fallen down right there – not through lack of knowledge, but from the headlight factor – regardless of how good or bad my work might have been.

It looks like extensive use of video would actually be an advantage to those kids who are not natural showmen – who’d’a’ thought it?

Any adult who can not solder yet should really give it a go, it is not that hard and you can get started with very little equipment. The only real art here is not burning yourself, and that amounts to “don’t touch the hot parts”.

I was fortunate enough to be taught to solder at about the same age (8-10 I would guess), and the skill has proven invaluable throughout the following decades, even for trivial problems: Need that special cable but all the shops are closed? Or that one cable just doesn’t reach the stereo? “Hmm, lets see what we can cut up and use……”

Well done Emma.

To anyone learning to solder take a look at the video and note the stable clamp to hold the board and the magnifier, both very useful pieces of equipment. :)

Was gonna post yesterday when I first saw this but didn’t get around to it.

When watching the video I actually gave a (but only one) clap when I head the pure joy in her voice at 4:36. Afterwards I felt a little sheepish. :)

Regarding what she has done herself and not I think that even if she hadn’t done the soldering and setting up the Pi herself it wold still be an impressive poster and she’d had learned a lot about Vermont, which I would suspect is part of the idea.

Great work, Emma!

I remember learning to solder at around her age (6), its quite difficult to get the hang of, but a good skill to learn while you are young!

I like that she’s wearing safety goggles in the video while soldering. I have to constant get onto the adults I work with about not wearing protective equipment. I harp on them about how they’ll like a hot piece of solder on their retina.