Squishy Circuits
The full lesson plan is available below (in Downloadable Resources)
Watch the intro video above from Squishy Circuits themselves to show you how it looks when you get it working.
Using Squishy Circuits (either purchased or homemade) we are going to go through a basic electronics lesson. I purchased my set via Trademe fairly cheap, but Squishy Circuits themselves have provided the recipes for making your own here!
Step 1 : The Basic Circuit
The full lesson plan has the curriculum links and additional notes, I have tried to provide some simple gotchas here that might help you out!
In the squishy circuits basic pack the conductive dough is coloured and the insulating dough is white. You can choose whether or not to follow this colour scheme if you make your own.
The simplest demonstration is putting the metal bits of the battery pack into two bits of conductive dough. If there is a gap between the two bits, or there is insulating dough in between nothing will happen.
By joining up the two bits with an LED you can demonstrate the electricity flowing in a circuit from the battery pack through one wire, through the dough, through the LED and then through the other piece of dough, back down the wire and back into the battery pack.
Information about LEDs
The longer leg is the "positive side", called the anode, and the shorter leg is the negative side, called the cathode. The longer side, or the positive side, needs to be against the positive side of the battery (usually the 'top'), and therefore the shorter side, or the negative side, needs to be against the negative side of the battery (the 'bottom', usually it is checkered or bumpy).
If someone has trimmed or chopped your legs so that they are no longer different lengths, you can hold the LED up to a light and see which way the flag inside points to (the negative side, or the cathode). You can also feel around the plastic casing with your fingers, the flat spot marks the negative side, or cathode.
LED's only work one way! So if you get your dough together and you stick in the LED and it doesn't light up, try turning it the other way. You can see why in the diagram above. Electricity can only flow in one direction through an LED (on the other hand, a regular light bulb works very differently - and lights up when there is electricity flowing through in either direction).
Other Electrical Components
If you have the Basic kit, you will also have beepers (called a mini piezo buzzer in most electronics supply stores).
This will illustrate for your students that it is not only a light that can complete the circuit.
Other Projects
Once you have mastered the basic circuit with the kids, it's time to let your creativity go wild. There are some awesome projects on the Squishy Circuit site here https://squishycircuits.com/collections/projects and a ton more online! We suggest looping in with the topics you are already studying in class. For example, if you are studying the life cycle of a butterfly, you could make caterpillars, and butterflies and light up various bits. The kids could research what bits make up a butterfly and you can provide different coloured dough to foster the creativity!