Electronics
Academic > Departments > Electronics
The specialism of Electronics is an applied science. It is the peculiar-looking, intricate and multi-coloured gubbins that you see inside your radio or television when you take the back off (don’t try this at home!). It is concerned with the use of devices to control the flow of electric current in order to process information (for example in a television set) or control mechanisms (such as a robot arm). Without electronics there would be no computers (and no Internet!), no mobile 'phones, no personal stereos and no microwave ovens.
Although it can be taught as a subject in its own right (and at Tonbridge we do do this) it really belongs as an essential part of the study of technology in general. But it has its own very special needs in terms of equipment and facilities, which is why at Tonbridge we have special-purpose electronics laboratories and project rooms.
There are three laboratories, which we have named in honour of the three scientists who invented the transistor (the most important electronic component of all). They are Brittain, the main laboratory on the ground floor, Shockley on the first floor and Bardeen, the smaller advanced level laboratory, also on the first floor.
The laboratories are equipped with the best of educational resources, a comprehensive range of professional/industrial standard test and measuring equipment, and individual electronics workstations for each student. The workstations have their own power supplies, low-voltage soldering irons and mains sockets, and each is provided with a dual-channel, 20MHz oscilloscope, a multimeter, a sophisticated function generator (for producing signals to test circuits) and a full set of electronics workshop tools (in addition to the individual tool kits that boys buy at the start of their Novi year).
All boys undertake an elementary course in electronics as part of their technology work in the first year.
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The purpose is to give them a basic grounding in electronic assembly, electronic component recognition, the use of basic test equipment, simple fault-finding techniques and computer control. During this first year boys will write a computer program to control a motorized vehicle, design a printed circuit board and build a bath water level alarm, a novel sound generator (with which to annoy other teachers), and a very sensitive movement detector. For those who can’t get enough of it we also have extension projects such as the break-in alarm, pulse monitor and LED thermometer. They will also learn to use test equipment and learn how to fault-find an electronic circuit, and in the summer term we often run a joint project with the Design Technology department. In previous years we have built electronically controlled model speedboats, steady-hand games and personal stereo speakers.
After this first year is GCSE options time. Boys can embark on a course leading to a GCSE in electronics.
Here they will discover how some of the electronic devices that they played with in their first year actually work, and will be shown how to design their own circuits to do what they want them to do. The GCSE course (we use the AQA specification) includes a major electronic design project, which counts for 25% of the marks, and a research assignment, where students have to write an essay on the social and economic effects of electronics, which counts for 15%. Past projects have included such things as an infrared intruder alarm, a graphic equalizer, a bicycle speedometer, a sound direction finder, a coin detector and counter, a customer counter for a shop and a laser target game.
Although we have done so in the recent past, we don’t offer an A level in Electronics at the moment. But students who wish to study the subject beyond GCSE and who are taking Physics may choose the electronics option of the Physics A2 syllabus. They will then be taught in, and be able to make use of, the electronics facilities for advanced work.
Through the Afternoon Activities and facilities programmes and in their own time outside lessons, boys can make use of the electronics laboratories for their own projects, or simply to learn more about the subject
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In addition to examined courses we run an Electronics and Robotics Society, which meets weekly. Each year we devise a different project or projects that boys can work on; this year it’s “mini Robot Wars. Divided into two teams they are building two small, radio controlled robots which will fire laser beams at each other to score points. We are anticipating that a competition will be held at the end of the summer term. The society is run by the boys themselves, under the control of a secretary and his assistant - and, of course, with the department keeping a watchful eye on things!
In 1998 we entered some boys in an International competition called MicroMouse, run by the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE). The object was to design and build a motorized vehicle that would follow a white line. Of the two teams we entered, Ben Thompson won second prize with his team and B.E.N.S. (Ben’s Electronic Navigating System). Apart from the cash, we won a brass cheese trophy!
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