3rd Grade

Project 1 - Shadow Boxes

Good start of the year exploration to get students to begin playing with light and shadow. What happens when we mix different colors of light? Students will use the attached checklist to guide their exploration.

Shadow Play Checklist

Project 2- Kaleidoscopes

Students will interact with kaleidoscope.
Students will describe how the kaleidoscope is made.
Students will descirbe how the individual parts of the kaleidoscope work.
Students will draw a kaleidoscope design.
Students will build a kaleidoscope.

IMG_8877.MOV

How to Make a Kaleidoscope

Project 3 - Thaumatrope

Students will learn a bit about thaumatropes, persistence of vision, and the early days of animation.
Students will design and build their own thaumatrope.

Project 4 - Phenakistoscopes

Students will test a phenakistoscope to see how it works.
Students will explain how a phenakistoscope works.
Students will build a working phenakistoscope.

IMG_8870.mov

phenakistoscope template

Project 4 - Intro to Circuitry

Students will learn and practice the construction of a basic paper circuit.

Intro to Circuits.pdf

Project 5 - Slider Switch Critters

Students will make a light-up critter using a slider switch mechanism.

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Below you will see a diagram that shows how the circuit should be constructed.

Project 5- Perfect Pets

Students will continue to use their knowledge of circuitry to design, sew, and wire a light-up stuffie using conductive thread and switch/battery holder . This stuffies will be inspired by the amazing Fan Brothers story The Barnabus Project.

Lesson 1 - Read The Barnabus Project. Then have students think about what they would like to make as a pet by having them complete this packet.

Canvas 1.pdf

Following Lessons -

Students will need to complete the following steps to make a perfect pet.

make a paper pattern
trace pattern and cut out on fabric
sew stuffie
stuff stuffie
add decorative elements to stuffie
add LEDs
wire circuit

Below is a diagram for wiring the circuit.

Project 6 - Nearly Neon

Is there anything more splendid than a neon sign?

In this project we'll design and wire our on neon-ish signs using flexible LED filament. For this project I ordered nOOdz from Adafruit.

We kick things of with brainstorming a word that has personal meaning. Then we work on sketching a visually compelling interpretation of that word and planning how to incorporate the filament. The filament I order is 300mm in length so I give each student a piece string 11" long to plan how they will use the filament in their sign. As this is a bit shorted than the real thing it gives us some precious wiggle room.

We do our drawing and coloring on a 5.5"x4.25" piece of cardstock. I love how black and neons look with the filament so I restrict the pallet to black and highlighters.

Once the design is done we mount it to medium weight chipboard with a glue stick. Then we use a pokey pad* (see footnote) to poke holes in the sign where each end of filament will go. The end hang out the back. All the wiring takes place on the back.

We use the pokey bads to poke pairs of holes on either side the filament along its path. We form this wire into a "u" shape and poke the ends through the holes, allowing the wire to hold the filament in place.

The wires are bent over in the back and then we wire them up with some little battery packs with a hand on/off switch.

*Pokey Pads - Perhaps our most delicious "well duh" moment was the adoption of the pokey pads for poking holes into cardboard, cardstock, and paper. We had a bunch of 1" foam chunks that someone had donated. I cut them down in 3"x5" pads and paired each with a push pin. When students need to poke a hole they set the area to be poked on the pad and poke through with the push pin. If they need a bigger hole, a sharpened pencil widens the hole. No accidental ouchies!

Project 7- Story Lamps

Students will use their growing knowledge of circuitry to design a lamp that tells a story.

Story Lamps

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