This month we’ll be showing you how to make a hovercraft. This project is a super low-cost way to repurpose a couple of drone motors and learn about these cool vehicles. We’ll explain the basics of how these amphibious vehicles work, and then will share step-by-step instructions for building your own cracker box hovercraft. This project and all Geek Pack Hack activities must be undertaken with a suitable adult completing their own risk assessment and supervising their children at all times. You can check out our video tutorial on how to make a hovercraft and subscribe to our YouTube channel to ..read more

Can you make an overflow alarm with just a few basic supplies? To do this STEM challenge, kids try to build a buzzer that goes off before water overflows from a tub. STEM stands for Science Technology, Engineering, and Math. This is a great activity  to do with school-aged kids in the classroom, as a homeschool activity, or in a makerspace.  This project and all Geek Pack Hack activities must be undertaken with a suitable adult completing their own risk assessment and supervising their children at all times. Since electricity can only flow through a complete circuit, this STEM challe ..read more

In this post we’ll show you how to build a circuit with a light-dependent resistor (LDR). This LDR circuit will trigger a buzzer when it’s exposed to light.  In other words… A flashlight tag detector! This project and all Geek Pack Hack activities must be undertaken with a suitable adult completing their own risk assessment and supervising their children at all times. This game never seems to get old– here’s how it works. Someone hides this detector: Then the players search for the detector with their flashlights in the dark. When one of the flashlights shines on the detector, it sets of ..read more

Break out the cardboard and the duct tape– let’s wire up a DIY telephone! This project and all Geek Pack Hack activities must be undertaken with a suitable adult completing their own risk assessment and supervising their children at all times. Years ago we visited a friend who lived in a large apartment building. Because she spoke frequently with her downstairs neighbor, they decided to cut out the phone company and connect directly through their windows using a pair of kid toy phones. Fast-forward to the present, and it is actually surprisingly difficult to find 2-way phones like this to purc ..read more

Here’s a project to build and enjoy in the summer: a DIY solar fountain (in a wheel barrow)! This is a straightforward project to make. And what’s great is that it’s 100% sustainable, since we’re using solar power to run the fountain. This project and all Geek Pack Hack activities must be undertaken with a suitable adult completing their own risk assessment and supervising their children at all times. Read on to learn how a solar pv panel works and how to wire up your own DIY solar fountain. We’ll list the parts we used and then give you instructions for how to make this project. You can chec ..read more

When we found out that you can combine LEDs, buzzers, and propellers with play dough crafts using Squishy Circuits, we were intrigued! (This is not surprising, given our love of wacky circuit fun…) Here’s a quick peek at one of the projects we made (isn’t it cute?!). That green play dough actually conducts electricity from the battery pack probes to the LED, allowing it to light up. The folks at Squishy Circuits provided us with a sampling of their kits free-of charge. Read on to see what comes in the box, how it all works, and some of our Squishy Circuits creations. You can check out our vid ..read more

For Arduino projects that include temperature sensors, it’s necessary to understand how to write the Arduino temperature sensor code to program your Arduino board. In this post, we’ll show you how to write the Arduino temperature sensor code to build an automated fan. When the temperature gets too hot, the fan will turn on. The fan will turn off when the temperature goes down. The Arduino will: Read the temperature from the temperature sensor Compare if the temperature is higher than the setpoint If the temperature is higher than the setpoint, turn on an “Internet of Things” (IOT) relay, whic ..read more

Haven’t you always wanted to know how to create a robot? Read on to learn how to create an easy robot that you can build at home. We call this robot Fido, because he comes when you call him with your remote control! This project and all Geek Pack Hack activities must be undertaken with a suitable adult completing their own risk assessment and supervising their children at all times. Like with most of our projects, kids of all ages can have a blast making this robot and learning about electronics. There are some small parts that need to be positioned correctly and may need an adult’s help.  ..read more

Through the end of April, 2020, educational bloggers are teaming up to organize Stay-At-Home STEAM Challenges to spark creativity while families are home, limiting the spread of COVID-19. This “Make it Go” contest challenges you to create something that moves. What will you build? A car? An airplane? A boat? A rocket? A robot? The possibilities are endless! You don’t need to have any special supplies for this STEAM challenge. We invite anyone to try this challenge– even adults! For inspiration, check out our blog posts on building a propeller car and a breadboard flying saucer circuit. You can ..read more

If we told you that we were going to show you how to make a speaker out of a paper cup, you would probably say, “oh yeah– we’re going to make a string phone.” But we’re not going to do *that* project.  What if we told you that you would be able to hear the music playing on your phone if you plug your paper cup speaker into your phone’s headphone jack? No way, right? Yes way. It blew our minds too when we heard music from our paper cup speakers. Read on to learn how speakers work and how to build your own speaker with just a few common supplies. This is a great STEM project to do ..read more