Website -- how to use a breadboard for electronics labs

pic from techdose.com

I'm at Manhattan College (in the Bronx) for an AP Summer Institute.  We are doing my electronics lab, in which students hook up simple DC circuits.

Students struggle using the breadboard, at least until they get used to it.  I used breadboards for many years in college, so I have no difficulty teaching their use, and understanding how they work.  However, if you haven't used these thingummies before, you will have enough trouble learning their use, let alone explaining their use to a novice student.

Michael Morgante, from New York, asked me whether I have an instruction manual of how to use a breadboard.  I didn't; but I googled, and found this wonderful guide through techdose.com.  Read through the five or so pages, and you'll have a better clue.

Should you xerox this for your students?  I don't think so.  They ain't gonna read through five pages of dense text and diagrams during lab!  But you will find this guide useful for yourself.  Learn how to use the breadboard well enough that you can demonstrate its use to a class of novices, so you can answer simple questions.  Hopefully this site will help.

GCJ