Reddit mentions of ELEGOO Electronic Fun Kit Bundle with Breadboard Cable Resistor, Capacitor, LED, Potentiometer (235 Items) for Arduino, Respberry Pi

I was in your place a few years ago, and you shouldn’t stress about it. I remember my first circuit lab.. The teacher passed out breadboards and a schematic, and everyone just started plugging away. I was honestly like wtf did I miss something?

It’s like others have said - some kids took classes like this in high school, played with circuits amongst themselves, etc.

Here’s the good news: you WILL catch up! Sure, the other kids have a head start on the basics, but once you start classes like microelectronic circuits, signals, electromagnetics, and controls, you’ll all be on the same page. I was one of the kids that had no circuit experience whatsoever before college (didn’t even know how to connect a resistor, LED, and battery) then ended up with one of the highest GPAs in my class and an excellent job.

My advice to get ahead or at least get familiar -
Buy an Arduino Uno and a kit like this. Arduino has hundreds of basic tutorials online that include both schematics and code. This way you can introduce yourself to the function of transistors, diodes, or other components you have yet to learn about. Not sure what level you’re at. It’s easier to understand circuit design when you can actually physically observe what the components do.

Good luck!!

If anyone is looking for a great "starter set" for LEDs, I can't suggest this one enough. It's got everything you need to figure stuff out, and plenty of extras for when you inevitably do the math wrong, lol.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERP6WL4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

(I'm not affiliated or anything, it's the kit I learned with, and it's a whopping 13 bucks shipped)

I don't necessarily have a lot of experience with exactly what you want to do, I'm currently turning off and on 5 LEDs to the tune of "We wish you a merry Christmas," but from what I have done so far the idea seems pretty simple.

Depending on how fancy you wanted to make it, like if you wanted a case and a nice speaker you might make it for $60-100 or so not including the Pi. I know you can get custom 3D printed items online, but you might have to mock it up in a 3D modeling program. SketchUp is a free one from Google.

Otherwise you might be able to put it together with stuff around the house. Do you have a breadboard already? Any wires and buttons? And possibly a cheap bluetooth speaker or just an extra set of computer speakers. If you don't have any of that stuff a cheap breadboard set on amazon would be like the link below. Comes with breadboard, wires, LEDs, resistors, couple of buzzers. Pretty much everything you'd need to put together a simple version of your idea. Then whatever you want to use for a speaker.

https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-CK-002-Electronic-Breadboard-Potentiometer/dp/B01ERP6WL4/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1482295148&sr=8-8&keywords=breadboard+raspberry+pi

This link is for turning off and on an LED using a breadboard connected to the Raspberry Pi. It explains everything in the process. From there you'll just need to learn how to add a button to the setup, then the buzzer or speaker.

https://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-tutorials/27968772-turning-on-an-led-with-your-raspberry-pis-gpio-pins

I got a kit with a breadboard and an assortment of components, this kind of thing. There's an almost limitless amount of things you can make with that.

If you want something a bit more structured get a book like Make:Electronics by Charles Platt, which will explain how the components work and give you example circuits to make. It has a list of the components you'll need at the beginning of each section.

Thanks for the replies all. I was prototyping with the following kit I picked up on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01ERP6WL4/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So you think that somehow or somewhere I was driving the current back to the ground pin directly, causing a short circuit? The wires were free on the end so they could have swung and touched something causing the short circuit, this makes sense. I'll definitely be powering it down between changes as suggested, luckily it wasn't an expensive lesson.

What's your budget? If you really want something decent, I'd recommend a breadboard, jumper cables, and some power source connector to put everything together. Electrical tape isn't an effective way to keep things together and solder isn't necessary if you want to disassemble it. A started kit might be a good idea too as it is much more useful if she doesn't have any/many electronics components.

All of these are under $20 (I think reasonable for a student) and would be a better fit:
https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-Electronics-Potentiometer-tie-points-Breadboard/dp/B01ERPEMAC

https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-CK-002-Electronic-Breadboard-Potentiometer/dp/B01ERP6WL4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGD2GAO