Forty-five youths will build working Bluetooth speakers in Manteca this Saturday, and carry them home.

Two Veritas Elementary students are leading the build. Registration is full, but the doors are open to anyone who wants to watch.

The workshop is led by two Veritas Elementary School students, eighth grader Amey Karanjkar and fifth grader Raavi Patil.

They will demonstrate the build from the front of the room and then work table to table, helping the younger participants through the fiddly steps: identifying components, seating the connections, testing the output, closing up the case.

For many of the children in the room, it will be the first time a circuit they assembled themselves makes a sound.

The workshop takes place at the Manteca Senior Center, 295 Cherry Lane.

Beginning at 10a.m., children ages 7 to 13 will sit down at tables covered in circuit boards, speaker drivers, battery packs and enclosures, and walk out a few hours later carrying Bluetooth speakers they built themselves.

The event is organized by NorthSouth Foundation and Aapli Marathi Shala as part of an ongoing effort to draw local children toward STEM. NorthSouth Foundation, a volunteer-run nonprofit, is known nationally for its academic contests and for funding scholarships for underprivileged students in India.

Aapli Marathi Shala has long been a hub for language, culture and youth programming in the Manteca and Lathrop area. Both say Saturday’s aim is not a lecture about engineering, but the experience of doing it.

Something specific happens when a young builder makes the last connection and music comes out. The abstraction breaks. Speakers stop being things you buy. T

hey become things that people can make, including, apparently, you. Organizers describe that shift as the real outcome of the day. The speaker is just a souvenir.

All 45 participant spots filled ahead of the event, and organizers are not able to add builders on the day. Families, neighbors, teachers and anyone curious are still welcome to stop in and watch the workshop in progress.

The event is free to observe.