26 Mar 09 Helping Kids Learn to Take Credit, For Other’s Work

It was second or third grade, and I built a ‘robot’ for the school science fair.  It wasn’t so much a robot as an upside down trash can with two motors to make the arms spin, two motors to make the wheels spin and a cassette deck head with an electrical tape smile.  And yes my dad helped me with it.  Would you let a second grader loose on a soldering gun and a jig saw?  Maybe a light soldiering iron, but that’s not what we had back then.  No sir, we had a soldiering gun that weighed about 5 pounds and made the lights dim when you pulled the trigger.

So yes my dad helped me by soldiering the wires and cutting the plywood base.  But as he went we talked about circuits, how the wires went from the motor to the switch and then to a battery so that when the switch was closed the electricity would go to the motor and make it spin.  Every step of the way I was there with my dad exploring, learning, and building.  Four motors, four switches, and a weekend at the workbench with my dad.  I feel no moral qualms for having presented that as my science fair project.  But sometimes the question of  “whose project was this” is a little murkier.
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Tags: cheating, help, parent project, Robot, science fair