Making: Soldering

Soldering finally happened! I provided my middle schoolers with the opportunity to learn how to solder electronics. The majority of the students had never soldered before, but there were a few rock stars that were more than happy to share their knowledge with the rest of the class. The intro lesson reviewed how circuits worked – especially polarity, how to solder, and general safety. Our first project was Learn to Solder: Circuits with LED and Pipe Cleaners. This was a nice starting point that only required four solder points and allowed for certain success. If I do this particular project again, I would find a way or have the students find a way to incorporate a switch so that the LED can be turned off without needing to remove the battery. Following this first project, we proceeded to practice soldering on little electronic soldering kits and learning about the different components.

Tips:

• If you are going to have students solder random wire, test soldering the wires together before leading the lesson. Not all wire or metals will work. For example, paperclips and ever so slightly coated wire will not allow the solder to fuse. (I attended a training where the instructors had not fully tested out the lesson before teaching it.)

• Find or create a video to demonstrate how to solder since it can be difficult for an entire class to crowd around to see the process up close.