Need some ideas for sixth form enrichment

[dsk]

So ive signed up to this thing our school called enrichment and its my job for one period a week to enrich sixth formers in IT.

 

So far they seem more into hands on stuff, ive done:

 

Week1: Take apart a computer and put it back together (they shocking still worked)

Week2: Insides of a HDD, inside of a server and a bit of talk on how it compares to the computers they took apart, tour of the server rooms in different buildings and finally they had a task to setup a PC, join the network and the reward was they could use the remaining 10 minutes to play Open Arena (Quake clone).

 

The problem is its only an hour, and i dont want to do anything boring, but i think most of the stuff we do can be, for a sixth former, rather boring, plus none of them actually do any A levels in the subject so things end up going over their head.

 

What hands on things could i do?

[3s-gtech]

Valve Hammer Editor/another map editor or game creator (hands on in a different way!)

Pretty much anything with RasPi

More advanced networking (perhaps VLANs on some older L2/L3 switches, to teach principles)

Soldering memory sticks back together

Get Windows 7 to run on a Pentium II machine (possible but challenging!)

[d0pefish]

Get an old xbox/ps and do a "inside of a pc vs inside of a console". chances are all will have a console, some may have had things like RROD and will be familiar with stupid tricks like overheating an xbox to try and melt the solder, etc.

 

or raspberry pi with a robotic arm and console controller. give them a little python code taster and let them see how the code they enter translates to the controller moving the arm

[BKGarry]

I took apart my old Mega Drive (power adapter blew and fried the board) and used a RasPi project online to put in a hub etc and have that in there with some lovely game emulators. Just comparing the difference of the two boards is very very interesting

[DrPerceptron]

In the past I just did a sort of Q&A thing, they would ask questions about why certain policies are in place and they would get explained to them and likewise, they were able to suggest things they would like to be able to do and we'd discuss what problems changing the environment to allow it would bring up - they seemed to quite enjoy that.

[dsk]

Cheers guys!

 

I think the map editor one sounds like something pretty good, get them do some work and the reward is they can play on their map.

 

MY only problem is that its one lesson per week so most other things are a little tricky to do.