One of the fun things about operating at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is enjoying the company of other hams and sharing ideas. Two weeks ago, a bunch of us were joking about how to make CW more fun and get more kids into it. Well, someone noted that since CW is a rhythm kind of thing, maybe someone could make a dancing game out of it. I don’t know how hard or easy it would be to hack one of the dance mat games, but if you could get the thing to generate dits when you step on some of the pads and dahs when you step on the others, that might be kind of fun.
Yesterday, we were talking about the experiences that a couple in the group had talking to Cub Scouts about ham radio. They quickly came to the conclusion that you can’t just talk at them, you have to get them actually doing something. I think that’s one reason kids love to bang on the code practice oscillator at the museum.
Along those lines, they said that one of the more successful activities they had the Scouts do was to design their own QSL card. I think this is a really great idea, and I plan to use this idea when I go talk to kids about ham radio.
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