This book is one of my absolute favorite children’s books about the brain. It introduces all of the brain parts in a simple but fun way. It also talks about how your brain is flexible and can stretch! Use the affiliate link above to check it out, it is a must have!
Did you know that learning about the brain from an early age can help children develop a growth mindset?
Are your kids bored and looking for a fun activity to challenge them? Try building the Circuitmess Nibble!
If you are like me, it’s been a challenge coming up with activities to keep your children busy during these lockdowns and quarantines.
The product we are reviewing today provides many learning opportunities and practical life skills for your eager learners. We will look through the whole process, from ordering, building and the next steps for the Circuitmess Nibble.
Circuitmess Nibble Description
The Circuitmess Nibble is a DIY (Do it yourself) handheld game console. The kit comes with all of the parts you will need to assemble the console.
Through building this kit your child will learn:
– how to Solder components onto a circuit board – how game consoles are assembled and what parts make up a console – how to load software onto the console – how to code their own games (an extra activity after the console is made) – a huge sense of accomplishment
Disclaimer: I am not sponsored or funded by Circuitmess. I am a programming teacher and thought this product had some great educational potential so I wanted to share my experience and my own thoughts. I assembled this myself to test out the process. No technical background is needed to build this product. Parent involvement is required.
All right let us start!
Orderingthe Nibble
All the parts ready to be put together!
I purchased my Nibble from the Circuitmess store. At the time of writing this, they have a 20% early-bird deal. The kit costs $99 CAD, and comes with free worldwide shipping. I have also seen kits sold on amazon, and through select hobby/maker stores here in Canada however quantities are limited and I’m not sure if those stores provide free shipping or not.
Shipping
Circuitmess ships their kits through DHL. The package can be tracked and gives you notifications if they require any updates on the package. I ordered my kit on Feb 27th and received it on March 3rd (4 days total), well before the “Expected” delivery date of March 8th. I was very happy by the speed of the shipping as it is being shipped all the way from Croatia. It also arrived in perfect shape which is always excellent.
My only issue with ordering was that there is an “Import Duty” on the package, which cost me around $29 CAD which is substantial when I was unaware of any additional fees I would have to pay. This fee may vary depending on your country’s tax and import fees. This is on the shipping company itself, not an issue with the product from Circuitmess.
The guide is quite comprehensive and has plenty of pictures, notes and supports various languages as well.
Before starting there are soldering guides that are appropriate tutorials first time soldering.
They recommend some extra tools to help with the build process, the only one I found would have helped was the “helping hand” tool.
Neiko Hiltex 01902 Helping Hand with Magnifying Glass
Neiko Hiltex 01902 Helping Hand with Magnifying Glass: Amazon.ca: Tools & Home Improvement
For myself I used everything included in the box except the screw driver as I preferred mine. I also used a soldering mat to help organize components and prevent my desk/work area from being burned.
Voniry Anti-Static Soldering Mat, Cellphone Repair Mat Heat-Resistant Magnetic Multi-Purpose Work Station Pad for Soldering Brazing Phone Watch Repair 500℃(40 x 30 cm)
Voniry Anti-Static Soldering Mat, Cellphone Repair Mat Heat-Resistant Magnetic Multi-Purpose Work Station Pad for Soldering Brazing Phone Watch Repair 500℃(40 x 30 cm): Amazon.ca: Tools & Home Improvement
The build is very straight forward:
Solder the buttons on
Solder the power switch on
Solder the screen on
Solder the battery container on
Solder the buttons on
Solder the power switch
Solder the screen
Solder the battery
Insert the fuse
Insert the batteries and test the console
Insert the fuse above the power switch
Moment of truth, turn it on and see if it works!
Peel the plastic off of the acrylic case
Assemble the back case
Assemble the front case
Add the battery cover
Peel off the plastic from the case
Add the mounts and the back case
Add the front casing
Add the battery cover and you’re finished!
I will be releasing a full video build later this month, going further in depth into the build.
Build Challenges
The only things I found slightly challenging with the build was adding the screen and the battery container.
The buttons and the power switch have a feature that allows them to clamp onto the board making soldering easy. The screen does not have that feature which makes it a bit fiddly. You need to carefully lay the console down flat on its face, on the screen itself, when soldering. When you do this, make sure that A) you keep pressure off of the device and the screen so you do not break it and B) that the device is balanced so the screen doesn’t end up soldered on an angle.
As for the battery container, I had a hard time getting it to lay flat on the back of the device. I’m not sure if my battery container was warped, but it ended up crooked after soldering. You can see how my battery container turned out in the picture below.
Battery didn’t sit flat on the board. Not a problem with the console itself.
I was elated when I turned the device on after soldering to find that there were no issues with it and that it was working 100%! This means that all of the solder joints were done correctly and I did not have to re-do any of them.
Next Stepsfor the Nibble
After building the device what can you do with it next?
Games
The Nibble comes with 4 games on it: Pong, Space Invaders, Snake, and Asteroids. You can add some more games for it that have been developed by the community, such as this version of Sokoban (a block pushing puzzle game) https://github.com/snsdosen/NibbleSokoban
You can program games for it too! It can run any games programmed in C/C++, Python and CicuitBlocks (Their own graphical programming engine, similar to Scratch)
Mods
Because the Nibble is made from a ESP8266 board, it can be reprogrammed or modified. There is a lot of open-source software that you can freely access and modify.
I will be releasing a few modifications for the system here over the next couple months so stay tuned.
Customize
An easy way to make this device your own is to customize it to tailor your own style.
Some customization options can be simple changes to the case itself like stickers or custom paint jobs.
Conclusion
I thoroughly enjoyed this build. I practiced my soldering skills and will be kept busy developing games, modifications and customizations for this product. I am an online programming teacher, so contact me if you are interested in a class or tutorial to help your child assemble or program their unit. The build was straightforward and easy to do. The feeling of satisfaction from turning the console on after your soldering and having everything work…that was just fantastic!
My only issues with the kit and the whole experience were the unknown import fees, the battery container not sitting flat on my particular unit, and that I wish there was a screen cover. As soon as I gave it to my 4 yr old to try playing, there were smudges all over the screen, so I may have to try building my own screen protector. As for the battery container, I did contact Circuitmess and they responded in less than 12hrs. Talk about fast! They said that the container was fine. It doesn’t affect the performance of the unit so I’m not too worried.
Rating: Build It!
Me having fun
Stay tuned for more content on the Circuitmess Nibble!
When you think of motivation you might think of a reward you’ve been promised if you complete your chores, a friend encouraging you to try something new, or maybe even just doing something you enjoy! Motivation is anything that makes us want to do something. Like everything else we do, motivation is controlled by the brain. Looking at how the brain works can help us understand why we love to do some things, but struggle to finish others.
Some of the simplest things we can be motivated to do are things that we need to do to survive, like eat and drink. Feelings of thirst or hunger drive us to eat or drink. After we have had something to eat or drink we feel satisfied which acts as an incentive for usto want to eat or drink again.
Need: something our body or brain needs to stay healthy or balanced.
Drive: something that pushes us to do something that will satisfy our need.
Incentive: something that satisfies our need or drive.
It is these needs, drives, and incentives that make up our motivation! For example if we are bored it is because our brain needs more stimulation. That feeling of boredom drives us to find something to do. The game or hobby we choose to play/ do to satisfy our boredom is our incentive.
Another example is when someone tells us we need to do something, like when we are given an assignment. When someone else tells us what we need to do sometimes it can be harder to find the drive to do it. That person’s expectations might be enough of a drive for you, but if it is not you might need someone else to help keep you on track. Your parent or guardian might create a drive by telling you that you have to do the assignment before you can play. Once it is finished the relief that it is done can act as an incentive, or maybe the incentive is the game you get to play now that it’s done.
What do we mean by schools of thought? Is that where your brain goes to study? Not quite! The word “school” has more than one meaning! It can mean a place where you go to learn, or it can mean a group of people who all share a similar idea.
When we say “school of thought” in psychology we mean a group of people who all believe the same thing!
Psychology (the study of the brain) has changed a lot in a short amount of time! That is not surprising because scientists still have a lot to learn about the brain! As psychologists have learned their way of thinking and studying the brain has changed as well. Each time a new way to study the brain emerges a new “school of thought” is created.
Structuralism
This was one of the very first schools of thought in psychology and started when people were first trying to understand the brain. To understand the brain they looked at all of the thoughts of the brain in small parts.
Functionalism
What good is a bunch of parts if you don’t know what they do right!? That is where functionalism started from! Functionalists focused on what the brain did not what it was made of.
Imagine trying to figure out what a puzzle was of by looking at each piece individually. It would be hard wouldn’t it? That is why this school of thought developed. Gestalt psychologists did the opposite of Structuralists and focused on the brain and mind as a whole!
It can be hard to really see what is happening inside someone’s mind can’t it? That is why people used to think that psychology wasn’t very scientific. Behaviorists proved them wrong! They realized that thoughts created behaviors, and that behaviors were easy to watch and study! Behaviorists learned a lot about what was happening inside the brain by watching what was going on outside of it.
While behaviorists taught us a lot, they still ignored what was going on inside the mind. Cognitive psychology turned that focus back to the brain! Cognitive psychology includes neuroscience. Among other things cognitive psychologists use MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines to look at what is happening inside the brain.
This school of thought can be very bizarre! It is an attempt to understand the subconscious mind, which is the part of the mind that acts automatically. It tries to understand what is going on when we sleep, when we say the wrong word by accident, and when react to something without thinking.
Humanistic
Humans are very complicated thinkers, so this school of thought developed to focus on that. Humanistic psychologists use psychology to help people live their best lives.
A psychologist named Sigmund Freud was responsible for founding the school of psychology called “psychoanalysis.”Psychoanalysis is the study of the subconscious mind (things our brain does that we are not aware of). A big part of what Sigmund Freud did was analyze dreams. Sigmund Freud was not very scientific in the way that he worked, so most of what he believed has been proven incorrect, but he did get us thinking about the subconscious mind and we have learned a lot more since he was alive!
If you want to have some fun you can take a look in a dream dictionary like this one and see what your dreams are “supposed” to mean. Just remember that these dream interpretations are not scientific, they are just for fun!
The Meaning Of Dreams
You think you are being chased by a T-Rex. Are you crazy? No, your brain is just interpreting some random electrical firings. In other words, youre dreaming.
So what is going on when we dream? Scientists now know that the brain doesn’t just shut off when we sleep, the whole brain is actually active! Scientists still have a lot to learn about why our subconscious mind is busy having a party while our conscious mind slumbers. What they do know is that sleep is important to help our brain store memories, grow new neural connections, and function properly.
A theory known as the Activation-Synthesis theory says that dreams are created because our mind is trying to make sense of all of that subconscious activity! Our mind likes to interpret things. If there are a whole bunch of nerve cells sending random messages around our brain, it wants to string them together to create a story. It is just like when you look up at the clouds and see different shapes in them!
Jean Piaget was a psychologist from Switzerland that studies brain development (how the brain grows). He noticed that children learned certain things and certain times, and he created a theory as to why. As children learn they add to the amount of information that they know, but something interesting happens as children grow. Piaget realized that there were changes happening in children’s brains as they grew. Those changes let the children think differently at different stages. He divided those stages up into four parts based on how the children thought.
What we know now.
Piaget gave us an idea of how children’s brains change and grow. It was really important to realize that children are not just miniature adults! His theory was not perfect though. Now scientists have a lot more tools to help them understand the brain. They have also done more studies to help them understand how children learn.
Piaget’s stages help give teachers and parents an idea of what they should be focusing on in class or at home, but children all develop at different speeds! Some 4 year old children might be able to think logically, and some 13 year old children might have trouble thinking abstractly. That is OK because people are individuals not robots!
This might sound crazy. Some scientists thought it was a good idea to wrangle up some crocodiles and put them in an MRI machine! MRI machines are really cool! They look like something you would find on a spaceship. They are used to take pictures of the brain. Normally they are used for humans, but scientists have started using them to understand animal brains too. They have used them to study dogs, and now crocodiles!
Crocodiles are very cool creatures. They have been on the earth for 80 million years! Scientists find this interesting. They think that understanding the crocodile’s brain will help them understand what brains were like 80 million years ago. So how different is the crocodile’s brain from other animals’ brains like birds and mammals?
The scientists tested the crocodiles to see how their brains reacted to sound and sight. They actually played classical music for the crocodiles! Do you think crocodiles like Beethoven? Surprisingly crocodile brains reacted to the music in a very similar way to bird brains. That answer might be yes! Unfortunately we might never know for sure unless we ask a crocodile.
Have you ever wondered how we learn? What do you think is going on in our mind when we do something new? Scientists have been working hard to answer those questions! They have four main theories, each one tells us a little bit more about our brain and how it learns.
Behaviorism was the first learning theory (it started in 1913). Behaviorists studied behaviors. They focused on things they could see and mostly studied animals. They made the study of psychology very scientific because behaviors are much easier to observe and understand than thoughts. Behaviorists helped us learn a lot about the brain and how it works. They focused on how changes to the environment (living space, and experiences) change behavior (the way we act.) Unfortunately there was some stuff that they missed because they did not look at what was going on inside of the brain, and they did not think about differences that we are naturally born with.
Behaviorists focused on three types of learning.
Classical Conditioning
We learn through association ( when things go together). We learn the ring tone of our phone because it goes together with us getting a message.
2. Operant Conditioning
We learn by rewards and punishments. When we do something and it has a good response (we get to buy a new toy for a good report card) we are more likely to do that thing again. When we do something and it has a bad response (we get in trouble) we are less likely to do that thing again.
Behaviorism was not perfect. People don’t just react to things that are around them, they also think and decide what their reaction will be. Peoples’ reactions can be different based on their mood, and the way one person reacts to something can be very different from the way another person reacts to something. Cognitivism tries to understand what is happening inside the brain when someone learns. People who study cognitivism look at the brain, at thoughts, and compare the brain to a very complicated computer to help them understand it.
Constructivism
Constructivism builds on the idea of cognitivism. It looks at how people build on everything they do to learn. Someone who loves dinosaurs can build on what they know about dinosaurs. Memorizing dinosaur facts can help their memory grow stronger. Learning where dinosaurs used to live can help them learn about geography (the study of the world). Learning about dinosaurs can help them become interested in learning about other animals, or maybe about history. They might go to a museum to see dinosaurs and learn all sorts of other things there as well.
With constructivist learning it is important that the learners are interested in the things they are learning. This type of learning is led by the learner (instead of a teacher), who figures out how to put all of the stuff they have learned together!
Connectivism
The internet has given us new ways to learn, and has created new ideas about learning as well! We can pass on information very quickly from one person to another. Connectivism is based on those connections. We learn as a group through social media, online games, and group messages. Before the internet connectivism was still important, people learned from each other when they got together in groups, learned from reading newspapers and books, learned through music, and from watching TV. Now an interesting post can travel across the entire world in seconds!
The first five years of a child’s life is the most critical time for their development. In the first five years children learn language, begin to read, and set a foundation for all of their future learning at school. It is important to build resilience and foster positive life long habits at an early age. Access to good quality preschool can be expensive and with Covid 19 policies, even harder to find than usual. Online classes allow young children access to a preschool like environment without having to leave the home.
Language development
Letter of the Day | Small Online Class for Ages 3-6
Meet weekly to learn a new letter from the alphabet, practice the letter’s sound, learn words that begin with the letter, and have fun.
Rhyme Time for Preschoolers | Small Online Class for Ages 3-6
Students will be introduced to the concept of rhyming through nonsense words and actual words.
ABC Pre-reading Body Break | Small Online Class for Ages 3-6
We will sing the ABC song and dance around, while learning actions for each letter.
Math
Adding and Subtracting with Mega Blocks | Small Online Class for Ages 3-5
This introduction to adding and subtracting lets children build tangible knowledge by adding stacks of Mega Blocks to make a tower.
Basic Coin Introduction (US coins) | Small Online Class for Ages 3-5
The students will learn the name and value of the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter through games, songs and actions.
Science
What Makes a Shadow? | Small Online Class for Ages 3-7
Explore what makes a shadow and how shadows change.
Materials: Toilet paper rolls (at least 10), cardboard (enough for the base and roof), scissors, paint, glue stick, paint brush, ruler, pencil.
Step 1: Remove any excess toilet paper from toilet paper rolls. Don’t worry if you can’t get the last little bit off.
Step 2: Use glue gun to stick the toilet paper rolls around the outside of the piece of cardboard.
Step 3: Draw the triangular pieces that will go between your roof and your pillars.
a) Measure the width of your Parthenon. Mine is 8 inches wide.
b) Draw a line that is the same as the width (I will draw an 8 inch line). This will be the base of your triangle that will go between the pillars and the roof.
c) Draw a dot in the exact center of your line. You are going to use this dot to find the point of your triangle.
d) Draw a triangle, making sure the top of the triangle is exactly straight up from the center dot. The taller your triangle is, the taller your roof will be. You should end up with an isosceles triangle, meaning two sides are exactly the same length.
e) Create a second triangle the same size.
Step 4: Draw the rectangles that will be used as your roof.
a) You will need to make two rectangles for your roof. To figure out what size of rectangle you will need, first measure the length of your Parthenon. My Parthenon is 9 inches long. Next measure side a or b of your triangle (they should both be the same length). Side “a” of my triangle is 5 inches.
a) Draw two rectangles using these measurements.
Step 5: Cut out your roof parts
Step 6: Glue your roof together.
Step 7: Paint or color your creation however you want!
Recent Comments