Engineering - The Frog

Technicraft 2013 began with the topic Electronical Engineering. It was fun being open to new and past experiences. I had done a bit of electronical work with my dad a couple of times. Some of the tasks were similar to those that our teacher Mr Clark, introduced us to. Our very first project was called, ‘Project Freida the Frog’. The expectation was that by the end of soldering the circuits and putting the resistors and memory wire into the right places,  the Freida would light up every time the memory wire was moved or touched.

Every week we gained more knowledge and progressed more with Freida. On the third week almost everybody was on to soldering their circuits with only a few exceptions. During these lessons, we also learned about how to strip wires and how to ‘swim’ on the right side of the current, but I guess I didn't pay much attention and by doing that I unfortunately busted Frieda's eyes, well not her real eyes but the LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes).

When I started soldering I was pretty confident that I was doing the right thing and I would have bet my soul on it!  Lots of perseverance paid off and in the end it worked but unfortunately  a couple of moments later, the excitement and joy vanished when I realised that my very first project, Freida had short circuited.

I was naturally disappointed. Not listening had lead to disaster, I had killed my frog but viewing and thinking as an optimist, I recognise that making mistakes is also part of learning and yes I now know to listen so next time I can do better.