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Girls Like to Geek Out, Too! (A Project Amp Review)

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Nothing goes together quite so well as teenagers and music at my house. Josh is my musician and Megan is my vocalist, but they also both enjoy listening – the louder, the better. They like being at home alone so they can really crank it up. I have to remind them the keep it somewhere south of call-the-cops loud.

We do have neighbors.

With that in mind, you can imagine Megan’s excitement when I asked if she’d help me review Project Amp from EEME. Build her own amp so she can plug in her iPod and crank it up? Yes, please!

Project Amp Review

What I didn’t expect was that Josh would be upset that I didn’t ask him to help me with the review. He never wants to help with my reviews, so I didn’t think to ask him. Plus, I thought it would be cool to show that girls like STEM projects, too.

Now, I’ve spent the last several weeks feeling guilty that I didn’t offer him the opportunity.

As soon as we got the kit, which includes everything you need to complete the project – yes, everything – Josh started digging around through his stuff (you know, the box of leftover parts and wires every male on the planet seems to keep) to see if he had all the supplies to build his own amp. {insert mom guilt}

What’s included in the Project Amp Kit?

Project Amp is a multi-step project from EEME. (We completed their Project Genius Light a few years ago. I let Josh do that one. {mom guilt})

It can be purchased as a single kit or as six separate shipments received over the course of 6 months. We’re doing the six separate shipments (though we will receive each new set as we complete the one before it – review blogger perk).

Each kit contains everything you need to complete that portion of the project.

EEME Project Amp Supplies

Our first shipment included:

  • One speaker
  • Wires
  • Jig
  • Wire stripper
  • Breadboard
  • Battery (not pictured) and battery holder
  • Led
  • Short wires (that are really tiny and easily almost-lost if you’re not careful. Just saying.)

I don’t mind projects that don’t include items that you might already have around the house, but I really appreciate kits that include everything. Just in case.

How does Project Amp work?

Your Project Amp kit includes access to the EEME website which features how-to video lessons for each step of the project. There are several things we really like about these video lessons.

First, there are links to any pertinent lessons that may have been taught in other projects that a student might not have completed.

Project Amp Videos

For example, in the first lesson of the Project Amp lesson, the student has to strip wires. The process is shown in the video, but not in great detail since it was taught in a previous project. However, there is a link to the video that teaches wire stripping so that student can watch it for more detail if needed.

It’s also worth noting that the folks at EEME take into consideration that kids may need a bit of practice with this skill, so they include plenty of extra wire. This allows the student to practice wire stripping and really get the hang of it without using up all of the wire needed to complete the project.

hands-on STEM projects

Second, there are several individual videos for each step of the project. Each video is short – probably all under 5 minutes or so – which means that it’s simple to stop where you need to and pick up the project again later if you don’t have time to complete it in one sitting.

Third, we really liked the “rewind 5 seconds” button. That made it so easy to go back and catch something we missed. It’s the little things, y’all.

Who is Project Amp for?

Project Amp is recommended for kids ages 10-17. One thing I really wanted to show with this review is that girls are interested in these projects and perfectly capable of completing them on their own. Too often, people think of STEM projects as being geared more toward boys and while they are fantastic, hands-on projects for boys {mom guilt}, girls enjoy them, too.

stem projects for homeschool

With that in mind, I wanted Megan and I to sit down and complete this project together – without Dad or big brother. So, we sat down at the dining room table, pulled up the website…and I quickly discovered that my job was to take pictures for the review. Period.

Oh, wait. Megan did ask me to wrap the wires in one step because she was afraid she wasn’t getting them tight enough. That was all I got to do.

A kid closer to the lower intended age-range for Project Amp might need some help, but I’d say that most kids will probably be able to complete the project independently. The videos provide clear, step-by-step instruction and a close-up view of each step so that it’s easy to see exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.

eeme project amp review

We’re looking forward to the next step in the project. Megan is really excited about not only being able to crank up her music, but also being able to tell her friends that she built the amp herself.

You can find out more about Project Amp and a whole bunch of other cool electronics projects at EEME. They even have small projects that you can do with a group, like a co-op or birthday party.

Teach your kids about electronics in a fun, hands-on way with EEME’s free interactive online lessons. You can also follow EEME on social media via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, or subscribe for EEME’s monthly projects.

Have you completed any projects from EEME? If so, which ones?

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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5 Comments

  1. This looks so cool! My 11 year old daughter would love this, since she is a bit of a STEM fanatic. That girl takes apart light up toys to see how they work (then puts them back together) and sat downstairs in the basement for hours once watching my husband rewire for a dryer, only to come back up and tell me step-by-step how everything was done. It went right over my head. Unfortunately, the height of my experience with these sorts of things was learning how to build a circuit (which I never actually understood) in my extremely boring high school physics class. We’ll definitely be checking this out!

  2. We created a fun project from EEME a few months ago and we LOVED it! I was worried my girls wouldn’t be interested, but they had so much fun. My husband helped them with it and I loved watching them work together to light up their light bulb.
    We’ve tried about 10 subscription boxes and EEME is tied for our absolute favorite. (The other being History Unboxed!) The projects are simple but challenging enough to make it fun.

    I love providing “out of the box” fun for the kiddos!

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