Deconstructing electronic devices

Project information

Curiosity meets sustainability

When the children asked questions trying to establish how things work, we realised that this was the perfect opportunity to let them find out in a hands-on way as part of our sustainability project. The children’s interest in finding out what’s going on behind the scenes of everyday machines and devices aligned perfectly with our emphasis on reducing, reusing, repurposing and recycling as we asked parents to bring in items for the children to explore.

Behind the scenes

The children enjoyed deconstructing the items using screwdrivers, scissors, pliers and hammers while deepening their understanding of how things work, expressing what they were doing, “I’ll just use the scissors to ‘cut’ those wires,” and reflecting on their knowledge, “I don’t know what a circuit is.” They worked as part of a team, asking for help when they got stuck loosening a screw, “Can you start this one? I can’t get it started.”

Apart and back together

Once they had taken an item apart, they took all the loose parts to the ‘art construction’ area, where they tried out different ways of putting things back together. In the process of taking things apart and reassembling them, they learned that there are more things inside than they can see from the outside.

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