Forget ABCs; Kids Are Into PCs
Watch out, Apple, AST, IBM and Compaq. Here comes Orion.
Orion Elementary School, that is. The Redwood City, Calif., school became the latest entrant in the crowded PC marketplace earlier this month when students built their own IBM-compatible PC as part of a schoolwide project.
The project took about six hours over three days and involved all 174 students at the school. Adults, including myself, acted as advisers, but the kids did all the work. My children, Katherine, 9, and William, 6, attend Orion.
Thais was no ordinary PC. They put together a high-end system with an NEC 15-inch monitor, an Intel 486 microprocessor, four megabytes of memory, a Seagate 204-megabyte hard disk and a Creative Labs Sound Blaster CD-ROM drive and sound system. Once the machine was built, they installed MS-DOS, Windows, Kid Pix, Math Rabbit, Kids Desk, Arthur’s Teacher Troubles and several other educational programs. The various manufacturers donated the components and software.
Kids took turns installing screws, inserting boards and plugging in components. It wasn’t the most efficient operation, but it was fun. Said 10-year old Evan Daly: “It was great to see inside the computer and get hands-on experience.”
Patrick Lucas, also 10, called it “the most interesting experience in my life.” But a few kids, including my daughter, weren’t that excited.
Building a PC isn’t exactly child’s play, but it’s not all that difficult. An experienced technician can assemble a PC in about an hour. The first day, the kids unpacked all the components and wired everything together to see if it would work. This process, known as “bread boarding,” is generally done by PC manufacturers the first time they build a system.
First, they plugged the Intel 486 CPU into its socket on the main circuit board (called the motherboard). Micronics provided a motherboard with a zero insertion force (ZIF) CPU socket so that instead of having to exert pressure on the chip, one child slipped the CPU into its socket and another turned the lever to lock it in place.
Next, they snapped in a single four-megabyte memory module (called a SIMM). One of the motherboard’s eight expansion slots was used for a single board that connects the floppy drives, the hard drive, the printer and the mouse. Another slot was used for the board that controls the VGA monitor and a third was used to connect the CD-ROM drive and the sound board.
After plugging in the boards, the kids ran cables to the disk drives and attached low-voltage wires from the power supply to the motherboard and the drives. They plugged in the monitor and the keyboard and, with the components still laid out on the table, they switched it on to see if it worked. It did.
The next day, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders put all the components into the case, connected wires to the lights, speaker and switches, and turned it back on. This time it didn’t work.
There were no immediate clues as to what the problem was. So I suggested that the students do what professional technicians often do: remove components one at a time until the system works. It turned out that the disk controller, which worked the day before, had gone bad. We found a controller from another PC and plugged it in. This time the system worked.
The delay caused me to worry that the adults would have to reassemble the machine to meet our schedule, but a couple of fifth-graders came to the rescue and quickly put everything together while we big kids took a break.
On the third day, the kindergartners and first-graders put the cover on the case, secured the screws and plugged in the keyboard, mouse, monitor and external speakers. The rest of that day was dedicated to installing software and playing with the new machine.
While some kids toiled with screwdrivers, others worked as journalists. One team ran the video cameras, another took photos and a third group wrote down every detail. Their articles were published in the electronic edition of the San Jose Mercury News, available to subscribers of the America Online service. Other kids wrote articles that were posted on the Prodigy information service. The children’s articles about the event were also sent out, via Internet, to kids around the world. Internet was also used to send advanced word of the project to the White House, prompting President Clinton to send the kids a letter of encouragement.
Adults too can build their own PCs. It won’t save you any money--the parts cost as much or more as an assembled system--but you’ll learn a lot. In California, for example, Domino Self-Service Center operates more than 20 locations where people can buy components and assemble the machines on-site with the help of a technician. For the nearest location, call (714) 557-6666. You may also be able to find a computer store that will sell you the parts or let you help, or at least watch, as the technician puts it together.
