Review on 🔌 Adventure Circuits Beginning by Educational Insights: An Educational Experience for Kids by Jeffrey Kue

Overall this is a good circuit for beginners to develop small minds and teach the basic concepts of DC circuits. I took off a star because I think there is room for improvement, which I mention in the Dislikes section below. My kids love following the diagrams on the cards and they love it when they get it right. Now that they understand the concepts, they enjoy creating them and explaining to others how they work. This set contains 20 missions in the mission guide that correspond to 10 double-sided mission cards. In missions, you imagine yourself as an explorer building circuits at a research station or base for various reasons given in the mission scenario. Template cards have outlines showing where each component goes. A number will be printed on the outline of each part of the template to indicate the order in which you will place the parts so that they stack properly. There are 3-way ring connectors that are used to connect the battery pack to one or more loads (white LED, multicolor LED, fan motor and/or speaker). The connections are made by laying down the ring connectors and fixing them with a plastic screw. Some cons: - The battery powered screwdriver doesn't have enough torque to fully seat the screws. You must tighten them entirely by hand to ensure a good connection.- The font in the instructions is small. It would be nice if they used a bigger font as it is intended for ages 5+. Using a larger font allows younger children to read with their parents. On page 8, after Task 1, there is a short section that briefly explains how circuits work. Drawings showing the current path and function of the switch are not included to explain the circuit. Not exactly a dislike, but rather a desire for missions to have explanations for the concepts they mention. For example, mission 4 mentions using wind and mission 7 mentions solar panels to power the research station/base. Mission 8 mentions using a fan. It might be better to give a little explanation of how motors, wind turbines and solar energy work at a high level to tie into the circuit aspect of this kit. A NOTICE. Ring connectors have a convex side and a concave side (see attached image of convex/concave pattern). I've found that the ring connectors make the best contact and seem to fit better together if you hold the convex side up. The convex side is at the top of the battery pack, so it makes sense to keep this orientation throughout the diagram.