Apples and Oranges: Comparing Crafty Sonic Circuits for Electronics Education
Rachel Gibson, Abby Aresty, Ian Moo · Interaction Design and Children · 2021
The Apple Amp and Orange Synth are solderless craft-based sonic teaching circuits developed to support a remote STEAM summer camp for 8 - 11 year old girls. In this paper, we use autoethnographic reflection and thematic analysis to compare and contrast the functionality and pedagogical applications of these two circuits. We explore how the circuits could facilitate complementary approaches to electronics education by pairing more and less predictable sonic outcomes. We further consider how the circuits and scaffolding activities might be redesigned to better align with goals of constructivist and constructionist learning environments.