Inside the Gadget Grades 6 to 8
8 weeks Coming
Leading the mission.
Inside the Gadget Grades 6 to 8 is an 8-week course about what is inside a phone, a laptop and a smartwatch: the processor, memory, storage, sensors and battery, and how they work together. At the Gadget Bench with Rocket, Raven and Nova, middle schoolers learn how a processor follows instructions, how memory and storage differ, how sensors feel motion, light and touch, how waves and digital signals carry sound, light and wireless data, and how a battery's energy is planned in watt-hours. Every Thursday a neighbor brings a gadget problem to solve with the Bench Method, and every Friday students add a page to the Bench Band, a paper design for a dog walker's dream watch, presented in week 8. Nothing is ever opened: every lab uses paper, cards, a jar, a rope or a flashlight. Short daily lessons with checked answers, a hands-on Gadget Lab each week and a Saturday Gadget Night for the family. 100% free, start to finish.
What your kid will learn
- Describe a phone, a laptop and a smartwatch as computer systems made of a processor, memory, storage, sensors, a screen, wireless links and a battery
- Explain how a processor runs instructions and how working memory and storage differ, using bits, bytes and SI prefixes
- Explain how sensors turn motion, light, touch and pulse into readings, and choose the fewest sensors for a job
- Use a simple wave model and explain why digitized signals are a more reliable way to store and send information
- Plan a battery's energy in watts and watt-hours and apply sleep and battery safety rules
- Troubleshoot devices one test at a time and recommend design improvements from evidence about real users
10 to 15 minutes a day, four or five days a week.
Be first in when this launches
Inside the Gadget Grades 6 to 8 is being built right now. Pop your email in below and we will let you know the day it opens. It will be free in full, start to finish, no card.
One email when this course launches. No spam, one-click unsubscribe.
Want to start coding today? Code Crew Grade 3 is live and 100% free, no card needed.