Information for schools
A hands-on electronics club for the middle years.
Nine 75-minute sessions for ages 10–14, fitted to your term. Students build real circuits by hand, learn to find their own faults, and pick up the working habits that go with it — a tidy bench, parts kept in order, checking before assuming. No soldering, no mains power, and no screen time for students. We supply all equipment and take it away again — you provide a room with desks.
Where this sits
Most school technology clubs are strongest in the primary years, and pick up again in the senior sciences. The years in between are often thinner — a student in Years 7 to 9 who liked building things in Year 6 doesn't always have an obvious next step.
That's the group this is built for. Construction-based programs — LEGO robotics and similar — are an excellent mechanical foundation, and this is not a replacement for them. It's the next rung: real components, real circuits and real programs to read, for students who have outgrown building and want to make something that runs.
On age: most in-person STEM provision I've found on the Gold Coast stops at 12 or 13. This course is built for 10–14, and a soldering-based follow-on for older students is planned.
Learning outcomes
The course is structured around one repeated idea — something senses, code decides, something acts — widened each week.
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Digital systems
Circuits, current and resistance; how a microcontroller interacts with physical components; digital vs analog signals; pulse-width modulation.
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Reading and tracing code
Students work from supplied programs printed on cards: following control flow line by line, predicting the output before it runs, and identifying which line is responsible when the behaviour is wrong. They learn what a program is before they learn to write one. Students work with their hands and printed materials, not screens.
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Systematic debugging
Fault-finding by bisection, hypothesis testing, and instrument use (multimeter continuity and voltage). Transfers directly to software.
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Design process
The final session is an independent design task: specify, build, test, iterate, and present the outcome to an audience.
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Prediction and measurement
Students predict outcomes before building, then measure. Being wrong in a recorded, deliberate way is part of the method.
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Working practice
Component identification, parts kitting, bench organisation and packing-down — the professional habits that make the rest possible.
Mapping to the Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies and Design and Technologies strands is available on request.
What we need from you
| A room with desks | Any classroom. No power points required — everything runs on battery packs, so there are no leads across the floor. |
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| 75 minutes a week | Same day each week, for a term-length block — nine sessions, fitted to your term. Immediately after school suits most schools, but any regular slot works. |
| 10–12 students | Minimum 10 for the course to run; maximum 12 so fault-finding stays one-to-one. |
| Nothing else | We bring all equipment and consumables and remove them at the end of each session. No computers, no network access and no software to install — students work from printed materials and pre-programmed boards. |
What we provide
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All equipment
Breadboards, microcontrollers, components, multimeters and printed code cards. Transported in and out weekly.
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A take-home kit per student
Included in the fee. Students keep a complete working kit and a printed manual at the end of term.
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Written curriculum
Full teacher and student manuals, session plans and a materials list — available for your review before you commit.
Safety and compliance
Raised here rather than waiting to be asked, because it's what matters most in approving an external provider.
| Blue Card | Queensland working-with-children clearance held. Conversion to a business basis is in progress, and the card number will be available for online verification before any program starts. |
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| Public liability insurance | Being arranged now, and will be in place — with a certificate of currency provided to you — before the first session runs. Not yet purchased, so it is listed here as pending rather than held. |
| No soldering | Nothing hot, no fumes. All connections are push-fit on breadboards. |
| No mains power | Battery packs only, at extra-low voltage. Nothing plugs into a wall socket. This is a fixed rule of the course design. |
| No lithium cells sent home | Take-home kits contain no button batteries or lithium cells. |
| Supervision ratio | 1:12 maximum. No tools requiring closer supervision are used. |
Fees
$380 per student for the nine-session term, paid by families directly, including all materials and the take-home kit. Families can pay $38 for the first session and decide after it, with the remaining eight at $342 — the total is the same either way, and it lets a parent commit to one session rather than a term. There are no additional costs to families and no cost to the school.
Billing and enrolment can be handled by us directly, or through your existing extracurricular booking system — whichever suits your administration.
We're a Gold Coast family business rather than a franchise, so the person who meets you is the person who teaches the class, every week.
Book a ten-minute demonstration
The fastest way to judge this is to see it. I'll bring a kit, and you can build the week-4 circuit yourself in about five minutes.
Happy to provide the full written curriculum and Blue Card details in advance of any meeting, and the insurance certificate as soon as the policy is issued.
Enquiry sent.
Thanks — I've got it, and I'll reply within one working day with the curriculum and Blue Card details.