John Adams | Hot Wires: Plug and play electronics set with 100 experiments! | Science and STEM Toys | Ages 8+

Product Information

Definitely worth 5 stars for ease of use, quality, durability, educational and fun value. Hot Wires is education in a fun, practical way that encourages creative & logical thinking and helps children read and follow instructional electrical diagrams.

Both my children were very keen to try out the experiments! It didn’t take Ms C long to find the components and Mr K to set it all up. Hot Wires are made with improved corrosion resistance components and the composition of new zinc. This gives the batteries a 10-year, anti-leak shelf life. The use of Japanese technology in making the product gives it better performance after storage, high temperatures, and discharge. School Project Suitable Instead of looking at specific developmental areas that children might need help with, look at their interests and how those interests can be incorporated into the toy. This will ensure that play and learn go hand in hand, allowing learning toys to develop important skills in children during their play-time.Understanding electronics is a vital part of children’s scientific education but this set teaches more than that. It also helps with problem solving, critical and logic thinking when something doesn’t work as it should – where did we go wrong and what can we do to fix it. It also teaches patience, being meticulous, how to read and follow diagrams and instructions, and having a clear thought process.

For example, if you are buying a toy for a toddler that is too advanced, they may get bored and turn to other activities while they wait for the toy to be played with. Thus, early learning toys are appropriate for toddlers, instead of too complex toys. I can’t say there have been many occasions over the last year of home schooling that I’ve genuinely looked forward to. Certainly not listening to pre-recorded lessons explaining fronted adverbials to my nine-year-old, or split diagraphs to my six-year-old. But one set of lessons I did get excited about – before they started – were the pre-recorded electronics lessons on the Oak National Academy. The John Adams Hot Wires kit cleverly boosts interest in experiments 2 and 3, after teaching the most basic (lighting a lamp) circuit in experiment 1. How does it do this? Well, experiment 2 uses another simple circuit to spin a motor with a fan on top, nothing too exciting, until experiment 3 encourages you to switch polarity on the fan and press the switch. The result appears the same for a few seconds, only for the fan to then whizz into the air and fly on an erratic tour of your room.

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As the book continues the experiments become more than simple circuits with the addition of sound IC units for burglar alarms and lie detectors (requires moisture on a sensor) and light sensitive photo resistor. Will this kit you can even create logic circuits, introducing binary and how computers work. I am really impressed with as how you progress through the book the experiments get more challenging, adding in new components and more complicated designs. The sees circuits go from a switch to circuits activated by touch, noise, water and light giving results in sirens, flashing lights, flying discs and even sound effects.

Unfortunately, Harrison didn’t quite share my enthusiasm, which was disappointing as he’s always loved knowing how things work. But to be honest I could see how he wasn’t enthused, because the online lessons on building simple circuits seemed so abstract. It wasn’t hands-on, he’d watch the teacher build a circuit, then draw the circuit diagram, then say “can I have a break now?”Overall, the Hot Wires Electronics Set is an excellent kit. The snap together pieces are the perfect introduction in electronics. It removes the frustration of wire stripping and soldering or twisting bare wires onto boards and components. It will give children the basic tools to understand how circuits and electricity work in simple form, giving them the confidence to move up to using printed circuit boards and the delicate components to build a real circuit board. The first experiment is Making a Simple Circuit. This is something I do remember from school – using a switch to turn on/off a small light bulb. All the components are ‘snapped’ on to a plastic board (supplied) and then the components snapped onto each other. The kids found this easy to do and followed the simple illustrated picture diagram quite easily. By building a simple circuit and using the information in the book it shows how electricity flows and how opening or closing a circuit will give a result, in this case turning on or off the light. Contents: transparent assembly workstation, connectors, buzzer, touch plate, photo resistor, LEDs, battery units, loudspeaker, music IC, alarm IC, sound IC, motor unit, propellor, antenna coil, lamp, bulb, microphone, power amp IC, resistors, capacitors, transistors, diode and full colour instruction booklet. Requires 4 x AA batteries (not included) John Adams

Hot Wires Set is the ultimate electronic starter kit. Can you beat the lie detector? There’s so much to build, and even more to experience! If you want to help further your children’s education at home then Hot Wires is the perfect set to encourage their scientific learning. Who knows, you may just find that you have a budding electrical engineer in the house. The Hot Wires kit states that it is suitable for children 8+ but our six-year-old daughter Ella has been perfectly capable of putting together experiments 1-15 so far and judging by her enthusiasm she’ll be building the logic circuits (experiments 96-100) in no time. The Hot Wires set is vastly different from the electronics sets that I remember. Hot Wires is all plug and play, no wires to strip or solder, just snap the components together to build your circuit. The snap together components make is so much easier for little hands to build fully working circuits independently. The Hot Wires set allows you to create circuits such as a lie detector, burglar alarm, spinning disk and plenty more.Next we built the radio set which involves using the Variable Capacitor and the Antenna Coil. My children finds this experiment super cool and loves that they are able to get a radio signal and listen to it but the sound is quite soft. The experiments in the book are really fun and do encourage children to learn in a fun way. With making Morse Code generators, simple radio sets, flashing lamps etc. there is a lot to do and enjoy. I have loved helping the kids with the experiments and, I must admit, to doing a few whilst they haven’t been around (it is quite interesting and you’re never too old to learn). As we have been working our way through the book, the experiments get slowly more complicated adding in resistors of varying strengths, different types of switches and sensors and even sounds. The favourite experiment the kids have completed so far is experiment 3 where they power a spinning disc causing it to fly up in the air. Type of Products: John Adams Toys produces a wide variety of toys for children, including board games, puzzles, outdoor games, and creative arts and crafts sets. Some of their most popular products include "Hot Wires" game, "Edible Science" game, and "Aquagelz" craft sets. Which is why I was so keen to get my hands on the John Adams Hot Wires set, which looked like everything his online lessons weren’t; fun, exciting, colourful, inspiring. Basically, everything that good teaching should be. And my suspicions that this might finally provoke an interest in him were well founded.