The vintageTEK museum participated in the University of Portland Family STEM Day on February 23, 2020 with a remote exhibit. Volunteers Pat Green, Dave Brown, Tom Kelly, and Bob Haas (taking the photo) staffed the event.

 

We demonstrated three exhibits that have proven popular with younger children: our Demo Board Tennis, Scope Art, and Time of Flight.

 

Contestants play table tennis against each other on our Demo Board. They typically stay for a long time enjoying this vintage game. When the contestants tired of playing with the joystick they start with the buttons and knobs on the 465 oscilloscope which we then have to readjust.

Our Scope Art exhibit has a number of knobs and switches to keep their inquisitive minds busy and they created a number of intricate displays.  Like the table tennis, our young participants decided there were even more knobs and buttons on the 465 to try out.

One  youngster figured out the on/off switch which slowly decays the image to a center dot. He decided to adjust the knobs "blind" and the switch it on to see the display.  This exhibit also proves popular and they stay until their parents nudge them off.

Our Time of Flight exhibit uses a storage oscilloscope for a traditional time measurement. The 1/2 meter ramp has an optical beam and sensor at the top and bottom which is interrupted by a marble rolling down the ramp. There are three elevations for the ramp to vary the time which is displayed on a 7633 storage oscilloscope.  They eventually figure out that they can interrupt the beam with their fingers and the then "draw" on the oscilloscope.

All in all it was a very rewarding day with lots of young scientists and their parents being introduced to electronics, technology, and oscilloscopes.