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STEM Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

April 17, 2015 By Ann Maes 9 Comments

The other day I was tidying up our play kitchen area and found an old and broken plastic checkout register. It’s been with us for a while and was hugely popular until our toddler started taking it apart and throwing it around.

Then one day it just didn’t work any more and was dismissed. When it stopped opening properly, didn’t make any more sounds or show us it’s red scan light and started missing parts, it lost it’s appeal.

Usually I try to fix our toys or re-purpose them in some way or donate when we’ve moved on to another stage of play. But this one seemed to be a basket case. I almost felt sorry for it, and for our environment.

So I thought it might be fun to take it apart first, get one last hoorah! from it.

While my 4 year old daughter loves a good tinkering activity, neither her nor I are really into Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM). We were about to venture onto unknown territory here.

I decided we were going to keep it simple: open the thing up, see what we find and pray there won’t be any technical questions.

Here’s how it went ..

Editor’s note: before proceeding with any tinkering yourself, please read the safety notice at the end of this post.

STEM Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

Tinkering Activity: Let’s Open it Up and Take a Look

I told my daughter that day that I had a special treat for her. I had gotten her Dad’s mini toolbox out and put it next to the checkout register.

“Where’s my treat?” my patient and polite child asked.

“Well, here it is. Today we are going to do something special, we’re going to open up the checkout register and take a look inside.”

Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

My daughter pushed the button, which gave an awkward yelp. The drawer opened up half an inch. She forced it wide open and looked at me. “See?”

“I see.” I said, holding back a chuckle. “What I meant by opening it up is that we’re going to use these tools, get the screws out and really take a look inside”, shaking the checkout register a bit in the hope of making myself more clear.

“Oooh” she said, eyeing the tools. “I can use those?” she asked, pointing at the little grey box.

“You sure can!” I answered.

And we dove into it.

It was hard work. For a four year old, it takes a considerate amount of patience and hand eye coordination to get all of those tiny screws out. At one point I thought she was going to walk away. I quietly helped her out a bit, being careful not to take over and finally we got to open up the box.

“Wow”, she said.

She spent some time looking and feeling her way through all there was to discover.

The bell held her attention for a long time. You could easily see how that worked on the inside and she was so delighted to find out where the noise had been coming from all this time.

Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

Then the questions came.

“What are all these wires doing here?”

So far so good, I could still answer some simple questions about how sounds and lights need electricity to work and how electricity travels through those wires. I could even tell her how that plate was a tiny computer.

(Added note: please avoid touching circuit boards with your hands as they contain toxic elements. Although we were very careful, we really should have worn gloves.)

We traced the wires and then decided to strip them. It was all very exciting stuff.

Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

My daughter ended up cutting in everything. Because she could. She made the most of her opportunity to work with some of Daddy’s tools. Nothing was left unturned, no screw unscrewed and no cable uncut.

Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

Until we had taken apart every. single. item. What an accomplishment. We had been working for almost two solid hours. A tinkering activity I wasn’t even sure she was going to like!

I put all the wires and technical looking ‘thingies’ in the bin to take to the tip. The plastic loose parts moved to our inventor’s box, where one day they’ll become part of the next best thing in Tinkerland. I have no doubt!

Tinkering Activity: Taking Apart an Old Toy

Following Up on a Tinkering Activity

The day after our tinkering activity, we went on a play date and I heard my daughter explaining to her friend that the noises and lights that come out of the music making toy travelled through little wires and that it even had a little computer inside!

I was so surprised! I honestly felt like our tinkering activity was STEM at it’s most basic, since all we did was open something up and have a poke around.

But it stuck with her. She seemed to have had a little light bulb moment, this insight that she realised her peers might not yet have. Not only did she feel compelled to tell others every time there was an electric toy near, she also talked about it at her Montessori preschool and has been making suggestions for things to take apart next. (No, we’re not opening up my sewing machine!)

I can only encourage her curiosity.

While I am a huge tinkerer in the playing around with loose parts sense of the way, I’m not naturally interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). But through this tinkering activity I’ve learned that it pays to get out of my own comfort zone and explore new territories together with my children. Who knows what we will discover next?

And should you like to tinker some more at home? Have a look at all of our tinkering and loose parts play ideas here.

Ann*

Want to pin this post? You can do that here.


! SAFETY NOTICE ! (Disclaimer)

Taking apart electronic toys (or other equipment) is generally considered to be an adult activity for obvious safety reasons. If you decide to involve your children in this activity so they can experience some hands on STEM learning, please keep the following in mind:

1) Always supervise your children when taking apart items. Be especially vigilant with younger children as they might easily swallow a small battery (which could be LETHAL) or other small items (like screws).

2) When a toy is battery operated, please remove the batteries first and put them out of reach of children. Once the battery is removed, the electric circuit is broken and you should be able to safely poke around.

3) When a toy works on solar power, they have batteries in them which are charged. These batteries should be safely removed by an adult before children can start ‘working’ on the toy.

4) When a toy or any electric item is plugged into the main circuit. Unplug it first or if that’s not possible, do not touch. Please do not tinker with anything that is plugged into the main circuit, this is very dangerous. Once unplugged you can proceed taking things apart. (also see point 7)

5) Consider wearing protective gloves while tinkering to protect your and your child’s skin from potential toxins. Circuit boards for example are known to contain lead.

6) Be aware that any tinkering with toys will quite possibly void any product warranty.

7) Please keep in mind that the larger your electronic equipment is, the higher the levels of toxicity and the risk of electrocution. TV’s and certain computer monitors for example contain capacitors that can hold a charge of hundreds of volts for a long time after the device is unplugged.

8) Use your common sense. If you are unsure about something, you might want to safe rather than sorry.

If you have any other safety tips or concerns, please let me know. Let’s work together to keep tinkering fun safe!

Filed Under: Creativity in Play Tagged With: preschoolers, recycling, school kids, STEM

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Comments

  1. Heather H says

    April 19, 2015 at 1:16 am

    I love your post! I’ve thought about doing this with a small broken kitchen appliance I’ve given up on, but it’s so much more relevant to do with a broken toy. I’m sure we can find something in our overstuffed toy box!
    Pinning to my STEM board…

    Reply
    • Ann Maes says

      April 19, 2015 at 8:48 am

      Thanks! I thought it would be a good idea to start simple 🙂 (we’ve got a broken sewing machine here too!). It’s definitely been very relevant to her, she still looks at mechanical toys differently, which is something I didn’t expect! We’re already looking for our next project! Thanks for pinning, will have to check out your STEM board for ‘pinspiration’ :).

      Reply
  2. Karen Patten says

    April 21, 2015 at 8:57 am

    This post was so great! We did something similar with our two boys and some old electronic gadgets. Ours were pretty hard to get into, so they got to do a lot of smashing with a hammer. Bonus!!!

    Reply
    • Ann Maes says

      April 21, 2015 at 10:09 am

      Lol, must remember to provide a hammer next time!

      Reply
  3. Kate says

    April 22, 2015 at 12:17 am

    I’ve wanted to let my kids do this but my husband is worried there might still be some electricity inside and is afraid they will get zapped. Anyone know if this is true or not?

    Reply
    • Ann Maes says

      April 22, 2015 at 10:49 am

      A very valid concern! The toy we used was already broken: no lights or sounds were working any more. So I wasn’t worried about any ‘zapping’. I did supervise every single second, because you never know what the inside will look like, even if it’s a simple toy. If the toy is battery operated, I would assume that removing the batteries should be enough. Now, because we’re better safe than sorry, let me check with an electrician and I’ll add a little bit of info on the topic to the blog post in a few days. Thanks for asking!

      Reply
      • Ann Maes says

        April 22, 2015 at 9:22 pm

        I checked in with an electrician today Kate, and I have edited the “safety warning” at the bottom of the post according to what he told me. Basically it comes down to making sure you’ve broken up all electric circuits by either unplugging or taking out batteries. There should be no ‘lingering electricity’. Solar powered items might be more tricky since you might not know where the battery is hiding and how small or big it will be so extra care should be taken or you can decide to not even go there. Whatever you’re most comfortable with. Should you have any further questions or concerns, do let me know!

        Reply
  4. Samantha @ Stir the Wonder says

    April 26, 2015 at 11:41 am

    oh my son would love this! Thanks for linking up at the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! We hope you join us again next week!

    Reply
    • Ann Maes says

      April 26, 2015 at 3:25 pm

      Thanks! Will see you next week!

      Reply

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About Me

Hi and welcome! I'm Ann, Mom of three with a love for creating things. I adore imaginative play in action and I am always in the middle of 101 projects. If you can't find me, I'm probably hiding in the pantry eating chocolate! Have a look around and see what crazy exciting things we've been up to lately. Read More…

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