🚀 go-pugleaf

   My own personal biased opinion (as one who both teaches and practices
electronics) is that electronic circuit board experiments are very
important.  We are surrounded by electronic gadgets nowadays, and I
everyone should have at least a tiny idea of what's in the gadgets
and how they work.  (I remember many years ago hearing the clerk in
a Radio Shack store telling someone on the phone that 'We don't have
any condensers, we only sell capacitors.')  On a more fundamental
pedagogical level, working with circuits helps build lots of skills.
Students learn how to relate diagrams of abstract symbols to real
objects and how they are interconnected.  They learn how to work
with their hands, how to make measurements, how to distinguish
between fundamental concepts like current and voltage, etc.
   As far as 'hardware' is concerned, I like the 'solderless
breadboard sockets' that are available from places like Radio
Shack.  I don't believe it's valuable in a beginning course for
students to be doing tasks like soldering, and I get very
nervous when I see piles of wires connected with alligator clips
lying around on a table top.  The breadboard sockets are easy
to work with and allow easy access to components for making
measurements.  If your budget allows, the best kind to get
are the powered types available from Jameco and other sources.
They not only provide the power to make the student-built
circuits work, but they also usually have other useful
adjuncts like simple signal generators, speakers, potentiometers,
etc.

Steve Luzader
Frostburg State University
sluzader@fre.fsu.umd.edu