[MillironX]

Cool idea. I grew up with the most basic Snap Circuits kit[1] and a solderless breadboard kit from RadioShack[2] - other toys you might look to for inspiration.

I think I was about 12 when I got these, and I remember that the learning curve between them was pretty steep - I was building all sorts of custom circuits with Snap, but had maxed out the capabilities of such basic parts pretty quickly. I never did figure out how to make anything other than the step-by-step projects with the breadboard kit. Although the ICs on Snap are kind of laughable, I could at least figure out what they did (also I seem to remember every one of them just played a sound), but the Radio shack kit never really explained why anything worked the way it did or what the applications were outside of its recipes, so eventually it just went on the shelf and was forgotten. That would be one trap to avoid from my experience.

[1]: https://shop.elenco.com/consumers/snap-circuits-jr-100-exper...

[2]: https://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-28-280-Electronics-Learnin...

[jakelsaunders94]

Hey, thanks! These are really cool bits of inspiration.

> but the Radio shack kit never really explained why anything worked the way it did...

This has been my experience also. We recently built a solar powered toy with my nephews and when we got to the end they asked 'so how does it work?' which hit the point home for me.

Do you have any ideas on how to create engaging content for the app around this? We've got so far: - Mini articles on each component (with accompanying video). - Mini quizzes to embed learning.

[MillironX]

I don't have any great ideas on how to do it right - I'm in the "don't know what I don't know" phase of electronics. Part of the reason I quit playing with electronics was that I already knew Visual Basic pretty well, and so I could program engaging things quickly while the electronics took a lot of fiddling with no understanding to sometimes get a result.

This has been a handicap in my career where I would by default reach for a Raspberry Pi or a National Instruments RIO in places where an IC or a Arduino would suffice. Stuff like data acquisition units (DAQ) and control systems are prime examples. Maybe by giving those applications first? I can think of several projects my 12-year-old self would have found a use for a DAQ or control system.