In an effort to educate the interested public about smart-phone technology, Topnotch Canada produced an Electronics Adventure, an educational product, meant to help the students gain a solid foundation in electronics and to understand radio technology.
The difference between a smart-phone and a touchscreen computer is the subscriber radio technology. It is this radio technology that makes the smart-phone portable and able to captivate its users everywhere in the world.
The goal of theTopnotch Canada Electronics Adventure is to teach its participants how a radio works starting from the background of someone who graduated or is graduating from high-school. Just as the smart-phone has a radio characterized by notions such as message, carrier, modulation, transmit, receive and antennae, so is the AM radio receiver and transmitter which the student will build in the adventure.
The adventure provides theory, practice and challenge activities in six modules called Trips. The practice activities come with a custom measurement instrument the Topnotch Meter developed by Topnotch Canada as a signal generator, mini-scope, ohm-meter and amp-meter all-in-one. The audio frequency ranges in which the Topnotch Meter operates can be extended using circuit techniques to cover all the experiments presented, including those of the radio.
In the practice activities the student builds various circuits to enforce the theoretical concepts. The adventure will be followed by a more advanced educational project teaching how other parts of a smart-phone work.
To preview the adventure click on any of the Trips.