But you have to have the right tools.

我非常相信親自動手做的學習方式。

If I'm going to teach my daughter about electronics,

但你需要正確的工具。

I'm not going to give her a soldering iron.

如果我要教我女兒電學，

And similarly, she finds prototyping boards

我不會給他洛鐵。

really frustrating for her little hands.

同樣的，如果她用原型板

So my wonderful student Sam and I

對她的小手來說是非常麻煩的。

decided to look at the most tangible thing we could think of:

所以我的學生山姆和我

Play-Doh.

決定要用我們能想到最實際的東西：

And so we spent a summer

黏土。

looking at different Play-Doh recipes.

所以我們花了一個暑假

And these recipes probably look really familiar

來找各種黏土的做法。

to any of you who have made homemade play-dough --

而這些做法或許對那些曾經

pretty standard ingredients you probably have in your kitchen.

做過自製黏土的人會覺得很熟悉，

We have two favorite recipes --

這些標準原料或許是你在廚房就已經有的。

one that has these ingredients

我們有兩個最喜歡的做法：

and a second that had sugar instead of salt.

一個有這些原料

And they're great. We can make great little sculptures with these.

另一個將鹽改成糖。

But the really cool thing about them is when we put them together.

而且他們很棒。我們可以做這些很棒的小雕塑品。

You see that really salty Play-Doh?

但更酷的是如果你把他們放在一起，

Well, it conducts electricity.

你看到那個很鹹的黏土，

And this is nothing new.

它會導電。

It turns out that regular Play-Doh that you buy at the store conducts electricity,

而且這不是新發現。

and high school physics teachers have used that for years.

其實市售的黏土也可以導電，

But our homemade play-dough

且中學物理老師已經用這個好幾年了。

actually has half the resistance of commercial Play-Doh.

但我們這些自製的黏土

And that sugar dough?

事實上電阻是市售的一半。

Well it's 150 times more resistant to electric current

那個糖黏土呢？

than that salt dough.

它的電阻比鹽黏土大

So what does that mean?

一百五十倍。

Well it means if you them together you suddenly have circuits --

這是什麼意思呢？

circuits that the most creative, tiny, little hands

意思是如果你把它們放在一起你就有了電路--

can build on their own.

一個很有創造力的小小手

(Applause)

可以自行完成的電路。

And so I want to do a little demo for you.

（掌聲）

So if I take this salt dough,

所以我要做個小示範。

again, it's like the play-dough you probably made as kids,

如果我拿這個鹽黏土--

and I plug it in --

它跟你們小時候玩過的差不多--

it's a two-lead battery pack, simple battery pack,

然後我將它通電--

you can buy them at Radio Shack

這是個二鉛電池組，很簡單的電池組--

and pretty much anywhere else --

你可以在Radio Shack

we can actually then

或是其他很多地方都買的到--

light things up.

我們真的可以

But if any of you have studied electrical engineering,

讓燈亮起來。

we can also create a short circuit.

但如果在座各位有學電路工程，

If I push these together, the light turns off.

我們也可以創造短路。

Right, the current wants to run through the play-dough, not through that LED.

如果我把這些放在一起，燈會暗掉。

If I separate them again, I have some light.

好，電路會想要通過黏土而不是LED燈。

Well now if I take that sugar dough,

如果我把它們分開，我又有燈光了。

the sugar dough doesn't want to conduct electricity.

現在如果我拿那糖黏土，

It's like a wall to the electricity.

糖黏土不想要傳導電流，

If I place that between, now all the dough is touching,

有點像是擋住電流的牆壁。

but if I stick that light back in,

如果我把它放在中間，現在所有黏土都有接觸，

I have light.

但當我把燈放回去的時候，

In fact, I could even add some movement to my sculptures.

燈會亮。

If I want a spinning tail, let's grab a motor,

事實上，我還可以在我的雕塑品中加入一些動作。

put some play-dough on it, stick it on

如果我想要一條旋轉尾巴，我們可以拿一個馬達，

and we have spinning.

覆上一些黏土，黏上去，

(Applause)

我們就可以讓它轉了。

And once you have the basics,

（掌聲）

we can make a slightly more complicated circuit.

當你會這些基本的以後，

We call this our sushi circuit. It's very popular with kids.

我們就可以做複雜的電路了。

I plug in again the power to it.

我們叫這個壽司電路，非常受孩子們喜愛。

And now I can start talking about parallel and series circuits.

我將它插電。

I can start plugging in lots of lights.

現在我可以探討串聯和並聯。

And we can start talking about things like electrical load.

我可以放進很多個燈泡。

What happens if I put in lots of lights

我們可以開始探討電負載量。

and then add a motor?

當我放進很多燈泡

It'll dim.

又放進馬達時會怎麼樣？

We can even add microprocessors

燈泡會變暗。

and have this as an input

我們也可以放入微處理器，

and create squishy sound music that we've done.

用這個當作輸入

You could do parallel and series circuits

然後創造模湖的音效。

for kids using this.

你可以與孩子用這個

So this is all in your home kitchen.

做出並連和電路組合。

We've actually tried to turn it into an electrical engineering lab.

所以這些都是你廚房裡有的東西。

We have a website, it's all there. These are the home recipes.

我們試著將它改造成電機工程實驗室。

We've got some videos. You can make them yourselves.

我們有個網站，所有東西都在上面。這些是家庭中製作的方法。

And it's been really fun since we put them up to see where these have gone.

我們有些影片。你們也可以自己做。

We've had a mom in Utah who used them with her kids,

很有趣的是我們可以知道這個計畫影響了什麼。

to a science researcher in the U.K.,

有個在猶他的媽媽和他的孩子用這個

and curriculum developers in Hawaii.

做了一個在英國的科學實驗，

So I would encourage you all to grab some Play-Doh,

夏威夷的教材研究也用了這個。

grab some salt, grab some sugar and start playing.

所以我鼓勵你們拿起一些黏土，

We don't usually think of our kitchen as an electrical engineering lab

拿一些鹽、一些糖，然後開始玩。

or little kids as circuit designers,

我們不常把廚房當作電機實驗室，

but maybe we should.

也不會把小朋友想成電路設計師，

Have fun. Thank you.

但或許我們應該要這麼想。

(Applause)

好好玩！謝謝。