The first group is forming now for after-school classes, 4–5pm on the northern Gold Coast. The first lesson is free, so the easiest thing is to come to that and decide afterwards. Each class takes twelve, and seats are offered in the order names come in. Nothing to pay to come along, and no obligation afterwards.

The first lesson is free. After that it is $300 for ten weekly sessions — $30 an hour — plus $150 for the kit, manual and case, which your child keeps. The two are priced separately so you can see what you are paying for: $300 is the teaching, and the kit is a real multimeter, a breadboard and the components for all sixteen experiments. The kit is $150 when bought with a course and $190 on its own. If your child already owns a multimeter and a breadboard, bring them and skip it — I will send the parts list so you can check.

What does a session actually look like?

An hour, after school, with relaxing music playing. They are handed a printed sheet, they write down what they think will happen, then they build it and measure whether they were right. Nobody presents to the group and nothing is marked. Tell me on the form if there are any allergies or anything medical I should know about.

My child is very into games and screens. Is this for them?

Often especially so. The pull of a game is that you’re doing something with an immediate result you can see, and a circuit gives you exactly that — it either lights up or it doesn’t, and you find out in seconds. And the work rewards staying with it: twenty minutes hunting one loose wire, then a genuine thrill when it finally works.

Does my child need any experience?

None. The first session assumes nothing at all. What they do need is to be able to read and to manage small parts with their fingers, which is why it starts at age 10.

My child is 8. Can they join?

Honestly, not this one — it needs reading and fine motor control that most 8-year-olds haven’t got yet, and being the youngest in a class like this is no fun. Come to the free lesson anyway and say their age; I’m interested in running a version for younger children.

Do they need a computer?

No — there are no laptops in the room and nothing to install at home. Your child works with their hands and a pencil: a multimeter, a breadboard, real components, and a printed sheet they write their measurements onto. There is no screen anywhere in a session. The circuit in front of them is the thing they are looking at.

Is there any coding in it?

None at all in this course, and that is deliberate. Almost everything offered to children now teaches them to operate something somebody else built. This starts a layer below that: what a component actually does, measured with their own meter, so that a circuit is something they can reason about and design rather than copy. Coding comes in a later course, and it lands far harder once they know what they are telling a computer to do. If what you want is children typing code on a laptop, this is not it, and I would rather say so now than have you find out in week three.

My child won’t sit still for an hour.

Plenty of them don’t, elsewhere. There’s no score here and nothing to come last at, so there’s no performance to fail at — which takes the pressure off the children who feel it most. Small classes mean nobody gets lost, and a child who’s stuck can watch what someone next to them is doing.

The northern Gold Coast — Coomera, Upper Coomera, Pimpama, Helensvale and Oxenford. Tell me your suburb when you book the free lesson; where the interest clusters is where it runs.

Breadboard electronics · Ages 10–14 · Northern Gold Coast

Teaching critical thinking and powerful habits to future inventors.

We teach the process of designing and building hand crafted breadboard electronics — what each component actually does, so your child can design their own circuits instead of following somebody else's instructions.

Come to the free lesson See what they make

Classes of 12No solderingNo mains powerFirst lesson free

A hand pressing a wire into a breadboard beside a lit green LED and a battery pack, from testing the curriculum on the bench — Long leg to plus — their first circuit, lesson four

10–14age range
12students maximum
Noscreen time
100%of it is hands-on

What it actually looks like

Real circuits, on a real bench.

No illustrations here — these are from testing the curriculum on our own bench, the same kit and the same builds a class will use.

Why this one, and why now

The thinking underneath it all.

Better than screen time — a puzzle that tells them when they've got it right. It lights up.

Absorbing in the way a screen is, except they can put it down — they just don't want to.

Thinking hard about small problems is a skill that scales to big ones. So is working tidily — a clear bench, parts where you left them, and a habit of checking before you assume.

Their kit is theirs, so it doesn't stop when the course does.

Illustration: a child tracing a wire on a breadboard, working out why a circuit is not working

They learn to find faults

A working circuit is easy. We teach the method for when it doesn't work — check the middle, halve the problem, keep going. It works on anything that breaks.

Illustration: a child leaning close over a breadboard, placing a red LED, with other children working at the same table

They get absorbed

No one has to be made to do this. A circuit that nearly works is the kind of puzzle a child stays with — you'll have to tell them to stop.

Illustration: two children at a table showing each other a circuit they are building

Co-op, not versus

No score, no leaderboard, nothing to come last at. Finishing first promotes you to teacher.

Everything is water

One analogy, used consistently — which means even the failures make sense before they happen.

Voltage= pressure
Current= flow
Resistor= a thin tube
Capacitor= a balloon

Illustration: close view of a child's fingers pressing a component into a breadboard

Hands learn before words do

Fingers learn when a wire is properly seated. The eye starts to see the circuit, not a tangle.

Illustration: a child holding up a finished circuit they designed themselves

Groundwork for inventing something

The end goal isn't following instructions. It's the moment a child says "I want to build a thing that does X" and has enough understanding to actually start.

A note from me

Nobody knows what the jobs will be.

At my son's school orientation they made a point that stuck with me. Twenty years ago, none of these were job titles:

cloud engineer
data scientist
electric vehicle technician

There was no way to train for them. There's no way to know what opportunities will be available for our children in twenty years.

Right now we're going through a time of change where AI is transforming industries on a massive scale. The best we can do is raise our children to be:

Emotionally resilient
Self-teaching
Adaptable
Able to think critically and clearly

We try to help with that, guiding our students to solve problems on their own, and expand their skillset. When they get something working, they know it was them.

We're a Gold Coast family business, not a franchise. I live here, my kids go to school here, and I'm the one who'll be teaching your child — the same person every week. Booking a term keeps your money in Queensland, and if something isn't right you can ring me and I'll answer.

MatthewFounder — and a parent in Coomera

What your child actually builds

One circuit, growing session by session.

It starts as a battery and a light, and ends as a device that senses the world and does something about it. The quotes are the sort of thing you hope to hear in the car on the way home.

Session 1 — battery, resistor, LED

What it costs

The teaching and the kit, priced separately.

So you can see what you are paying for. The first lesson is free either way, and nothing is owed if it turns out not to suit.

The course

Ten weekly sessions · 4–5pm

$300 for ten sessions

Sixteen experiments, an hour a week, twelve students at most. That works out at $30 an hour, and every experiment sheet is printed and theirs to fill in and keep.

Small enough that I can sit with each child when their circuit will not work — which is most of the teaching.

The kit

Bought once · theirs to keep

$150 with a course

A multimeter, a breadboard and the components for all sixteen experiments, with a printed manual and a case to keep it in. $190 on its own.

Students work from their own kit, so nothing has to be pulled apart for the next class. Already have a meter and a breadboard? Bring them and skip it.

Come to the free lesson first. Everything is provided for that one.

The kit they work from

Their own kit, and it outlasts the course.

Not a loan, and not shared class equipment. Every experiment is built on their own board and goes home on it, so nothing is half-finished at the end of an hour and nothing gets pulled apart for the next class. $150 with a course, and it keeps working long after the ten weeks are done.

01MultimeterTheir own, and every number in the course is one they measured with it
02BreadboardProfessional grade, not the cheap kind
03ComponentsLEDs, resistors, buttons, capacitors, a relay and a fuse — everything the sixteen experiments need
04Prep tray3D-printed, with their name on it
05Storage boxCompartmented, so nothing gets lost
06Printed manualEvery circuit, including the fault-finding checklist

Why it matters: a child who can keep building at home is a child who might still be doing this in five years. That's the actual point.

Illustration — photos once the first group runs

Safety, plainly

The two questions every parent asks.

Answered before you have to ask them.

Hard rule

No soldering

Nothing hot, no fumes, no burns. Everything is push-fit on a breadboard — which is also the point, because it can be pulled apart and rebuilt endlessly. Soldering is a later course, for older students.

Hard rule

No mains power — ever

Everything runs from a battery pack at the same voltage as a torch. Nothing in the room plugs into a wall socket. This is a hard rule, not a preference.

Class sizes are capped at twelve, because fault-finding is one-to-one work. The one loud demonstration in the course — a capacitor put in backwards — is done by me, at a distance, with the room ventilated and the children well clear. I hold a Queensland Blue Card (working with children), currently being converted to the business version. Happy to talk through supervision and first aid arrangements with any parent who asks.

Questions

The things parents ask first.

Free first lesson

Come and try the first lesson, free.

After-school classes, 4–5pm, around Coomera and Pimpama. The first lesson costs nothing and commits you to nothing — come along, do the first experiment, and see whether the room suits your child. Classes are capped at twelve, small enough that I can sit with each child when their circuit won't work. Tell me your suburb and I'll let you know the date and hall as soon as it's set.

Nothing to pay now, and no commitment
The first lesson is free — nothing to pay to try it
Your suburb helps decide where the first group runs

Running a school or after-school program? See the information for schools →

Your name

Phone (optional)

Child's age

Which would suit you?

Suburb or school

Allergies or anything medical I should know (optional)

Anything else? (optional)

Nothing to pay, no obligation, and I won't pass your details to anyone. I'll email you when dates are set.

You're on the list.

I've got your details. I'll email you as soon as dates and a location are set — nothing to pay in the meantime.

Questions before then? hello@emergingengineers.com.au