Workshops

Holiday workshops: Electronic and Electrical Control AM (ages 12–14)

In this workshop for 12–14 year-olds students will build circuits to control a driverless train.

Students building electrical circuits
Image credit: Tim Mitchell

Participants will be working as Electronic and Electrical Engineers with some Mechanical Engineering aspects. They will design and build an increasingly complex electrical and electronic control system. Working in pairs they start by making a pressure switch and use this to control a pre-made electrical buggy to perform four tasks. Using a slide switch there are then three more tasks of increasing complexity. After the last task the buggy should be traveling backwards and forwards between two fixed objects automatically.

Using an on-board computer there are a further four tasks where a programme is built up on the computer to control the buggy to start and stop at specific places. For the twelfth challenge three ‘stations’ are laid out, the buggy needs to be programmed to start at station A, stop at station B briefly, go on to C then return to B & A, all automatically. This activity is modelled on the driverless underground Tracked Transit at Heathrow that transports passengers from Terminal 5A, to 5B to 5C, stopping on its return.

Other switches and tasks are available to those who would like to solve additional challenges.

About Jeremy King

Jeremy King is an Engineer and science communicator, who worked as a Chartered Civil Engineer for thirty years, building motorways, power stations, multi-storey office blocks and more. He now works around the country, running workshops for over 8000 students a year.

This workshop is strictly for ages 9-11 only. We reserve the right to refund or deny entry to those who are not in this age range.

Refunds can only be issued for tickets cancelled at least two weeks (14 calendar days) in advance of the event date. Please note that this supersedes our normal event terms and conditions. Please also note that Eventbrite adds a small booking fee to the amount paid for each ticket option. 

About our workshops

Holiday workshops at the Royal Institution give students a hands-on experience of STEM topics (science, technology, engineering, maths) beyond what they learn at school. Working in groups or pairs, students will get hands-on to complete activities, challenges or projects which help them look deeper at the subject they are exploring. These workshops don’t follow the school curriculum but instead show students the many real world uses of STEM topics, expanding their horizons beyond the classroom to see the amazing possibilities science can give you. Sessions are led by experts from across industry and academia who will share with the students their excitement and knowledge of their areas of expertise.

For any queries regarding this workshop please email events@ri.ac.uk.

Support to attend holiday workshops

The Potential Trust may be able to offer financial assistance to enable children to participate in Ri events and activities if this would otherwise be financially difficult. Please contact Denise Yates, or at their new email address here

 

 

Event terms and conditions