My 16 year-old son loves to play Dungeons and Dragons with his friends, and had an idea for a treasure chest that magically opened to reveal a mystical fog as a key part of a story plot he was writing.
He went on Amazon and quickly found an ultrasonic humidifier engine (~$10). I had already given my son an Arduino kit ($85) which he has experimented with for years, so he knows how to drive servos and lights. And he already taught himself to code in Python, via a book I gave him as a young kid ($20) and lots of readily available websites with example code libraries.
I sat down with him and helped him with the basics of solid modeling in Fusion 360 ($0 -free for personal use). Because of all the constructive building he has done in games like Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program, it took him all of about 15 minutes to learn Fusion. He designed a beautiful treasure chest, with a little tutelage from myself in basic mechanical design and 3D modeling (especially for the tricky or non-obvious stuff, like “how can we design this hinge to 3D print without overhangs?”). We 3D-printed all the parts on my low-cost FDM printer ($15 in filament).
He looked up YouTube videos on faux-finishing and did a fantastic job thematically painting the box, complete with faux-aged wood grain and silver wax finish on the faux hardware (~$15 in paint).
He then downloaded free sound effects of lightning, spooky ghosts, etc. Plus he coded in Python a connection to our Philips Hue color changing light bulbs so he could synchronize eerie ghosts sweeping through the room, lightning crashes, gun shots, etc.
The other kids (all 16-17 years old) were impressed. And they are smart kids too, they quickly got how much work my son put into it and thought the whole thing was cool. A mini “immersive experience” that they all could share outside of some vapid screen.
All in all, I spent only $145 to help my son build a robotic, themed set piece and A/V experience that 20 years ago would have cost several thousand dollars, a full shop and weeks of work to do the same. I can think of no better way to get kids interested in design, engineering, coding, art, robotics, science and so many other professions by helping them do their own mini themed-design projects…complete with custom show control system!
PS…and now we have a rad Halloween set piece for our window…HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Lucept 