Qtechknow Shares his Love of Arduino with the Children of Los Angeles

This past Saturday, Crashspace hosted a particularly special Intro to Arduino course for kids. We’ve had some excellent Arduino classes in the past, taught by experts in the field… but there was something really special about this one. Our guest lecturer, @Qtechknow, traveled quite a distance to come and share his unique love of Arduino programming with the children of Los Angeles.

So who is this Qtechknow, you ask?

Well, let me introduce you. Internet, this is Qtechknow:

Qtechknow, meet the internet.

Qtechknow is an 11-year-old inventor with an amazing love for electronics. While not at school or off doing kid-things, he designs and manufactures his own PCBs, shares his crazy inventions, and defeats some of the hardest puzzles in the world.

With spreading his passion in mind, Qtechknow and his family journeyed to Los Angeles to lead a class of 20+ kids and parents in basic programming, circuits, and Arduino at Crashspace.

Qtechknow walks the class through some basics before bringing out the kits

Using his custom-designed ArduSensors, Qtechknow led the class through the basics of programming, how to design simple circuits, and the differences between analog vs. digital output. He then assisted the class in building several circuits of increasing complexity to demonstrate the concepts they had learned.

Qtechknow believes in hands-on learning, and equipped all students with custom-designed ArduSensors

Totally hands-on: Kids of various ages work with partners to build each example project.

Of course, there were skeptics initially. It’s one thing to excel in a field, and another thing entirely to be able to relate ones knowledge eloquently and passionately in a public forum. Qtechknow showed us not only that he could captivate of an audience and relay his topics clearly, but that there’s a distinct advantage to having children learn from one another. There’s something that an 11-year-old can convey to other 11-year-olds that we adults are simply incapable of tapping into.

Qtechknow explains the Arduino interface, and works with students to triage and patch a broken circuit

We wish we could have Qtechknow back every week, but alas, school starts back up this fall. But fear not, young readers: our doors are always open to Qtechknow, and who knows what next summer will bring.