Circuitry

There are several options for exploration of electricity and circuits. Try at least two of these. If you don't know much about circuits, start with Squishy Circuits.

Squishy Circuits

This is a kit designed especially for young children so it is good for mastering the basics.

Squishy Circuits: https://squishycircuits.com/

1. Learn: Read about circuit basics before starting. Watch Making Your First Squishy Circuit. Keep in mind:

• Don't attach LEDs directly to the battery pack. This will burn them out.
• The conductive dough serves as a resistor plus a wire. You need at least a 2 cm length dough (1 cm wide) between battery and LED to avoid burning out the LED. Blue LEDs can handle the most current and red LEDs the least.
• LEDs have polarity. They only work in one direction. The short leg is negative and the long leg is positive. If it doesn't work, pull it out and switch it around.
• The motor also has polarity which will determine the direction it spins.
• Buzzer has polarity. Match color of wire with color of motor wire plugged into dough.
• When done, wipe off the LEDs and connectors with a damp cloth.
• Don't mix the doughs together. When done, separate them and put them back in the containers.

2. Do Your Challenge: With your partner, create a circuit that uses up to 3 LEDs and two types of dough to either make a sound and/or run the motor. Determine what happens to the LED when you add the motor or the buzzer.

3. Create a Challenge: Create a challenge for either kindergartners or sixth graders using Squishy Circuits that could be used in a makerspace. (Keep in mind that you can get into the concepts of Ohm's law, resistance, voltage and current with older students.)

4. Create a curricular tie-in: With your partner, develop a idea to suggest to teachers for using squishy circuits tied to classroom curriculum. Include an objective, at least one relevant standard that could be included, a description of an activity, and considerations on it implementation (e.g., equipment needs, student skills, grouping, timeframe).

Makey Makey

Makey Makey is a circuit board that allows you to attach different conductive devices to make it an input device (like a mouse or a keyboard).

1. Learn about Makey Makey. Get inspiration from some of the videos.

2. Do Your Challenge: With your partner, create a Makey Makey and use it for one of these applications:

• Bongos
• Piano
• Scratch Piano
• Tetris
• Pac Man
• Scratch Marble Racer
• Scratch Music Examples

You can use a range of objects such as:

• fruit & vegetables
• copper pennies (pre-1982)
• foil
• playdough
• plants
• people: Connect one person to ground, & another to an input. You can trigger sounds when they high-five.
• graphite from a pencil (thick, dark lines)

You can also code programs in Scratch that use the Makey Makey as an input device.

3. Create a Challenge: Create a challenge using the Makey Makey for your level that could be used in a makerspace. (Keep in mind that you can get into the concepts of Ohm's law, resistance, voltage and current with older students.)

4. Create a curricular tie-in: With your partner, develop a idea to suggest to teachers for using Makey Makey tied to classroom curriculum. Include an objective, at least one relevant standard that could be included, a description of an activity, and considerations on it implementation (e.g., equipment needs, student skills, grouping, timeframe).

Snap Circuits

Snap Circuits: http://www.snapcircuits.net/

1. Learn about Snap Circuits by reading pages 2-5 of the manual. Keep in mind the cautions on page 5. Look at some kid creations.

2. Do Your Challenge: With your partner, do projects 1, 2, 3 and 4 (in manual). (If you want to see a video of this, watch Projects 1-10)

3. Create a Challenge: Create a challenge your level using Snap Circuits that could be used in a makerspace. This could build on one of the projects in the manuals. Keep in mind that you can get into the concepts of Ohm's law, resistance, voltage and current with older students.

4. Create a curricular tie-in: With your partner, develop a idea to suggest to teachers for using Snap Circuits tied to classroom curriculum. Include an objective, at least one relevant standard that could be included, a description of an activity, and considerations on it implementation (e.g., equipment needs, student skills, grouping, timeframe).

Resources

• Squishy Circuits: http://www.snapcircuits.net/
  • Lesson plan for Squishy Circuits (Perry Roth Johnson and Chris Nguyen)
  • Squishy Circuits Projects and Teaching Tools
  • Rethinking Squishy Circuits
  • Squishy Circuits (lesson plan with many additional resources)
• Makey Makey: http://web.media.mit.edu/~ericr/makeymakey/
  • Makey Makey Quick Start Guide
  • Resources and Projects from SparkFun
  • Jay Sliver: Hack a Banana, Make a Keyboard
  • Makey Makey Gallery
  • Makey Make Lesson Plans (Educade)
  • Getting Started with Makey Makey and Scratch
  • SketchItTPlayIT (making a piano with Makey Makey)
  • Makey Makey Group Activity Guides
  • Use Makey Makey to Design a Videogame Console: http://educade.org/lesson_plans/use-makey-makey-to-design-a-videogame-controller
  • Color Game with Makey Makey
• Snap Circuits: http://www.snapcircuits.net/
  • Electronic Circuits Workshop: Snap Circuits
  • Advanced Snap Circuits with with Ring Modulation and Keyboard
  • DIY Spin Art Machine
  • Snap Circuit Rubric (Peoria School Disrict)
• Drawdio: http://web.media.mit.edu/~silver/drawdio/
• Arduino: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad
• Raspberry Pi: http://www.raspberrypi.org/
• How Circuits Work (How Stuff Works): http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/circuit.htm
• Electronic Projects for Beginners: http://www.instructables.com/id/Electronic-Projects-For-Beginners/
• Electricity Lesson
• Simple Electronics Projects for Beginners: http://www.circuitstoday.com/simple-electronics-projects-and-circuits

Print Resources

• Making a Circuit (It's Electric!) by Chris Oxlade (2012)
• Make: Electronics by Charles Platt (2nd ed.) (2015).
• Battery Science: Make Widgets That Work and Gadgets That Go by Doug Stillinger (2003)
• Janice VanCleave's Engineering for Every Kid: Easy Activities That Make Learning Science Fun (Science for Every Kid Series) by Janice VanCleave (2008).
• Young Discoverers: Batteries, Bulbs, and Wires (Young Discoverers: Science Facts and Experiments) by David Glover (2002).
• Tinkering: Kids Learn by Making Stuff by Curt Gabrielson (2013).
• Exploralab by The Exploratorium (2013).
• Making Things Talk: Using Sensors, Networks, and Arduino to see, hear, and feel your world by Tom Igoe (2011) – more advanced
• Making Things See: 3D vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino, and MakerBot by Greg Borenstein (2012) – more advanced

For Teachers

• Play Dough Circuits: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3479415.htm
• Electricity Interactive Fun for Kids: http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/curriculum/quicktip/science/electricity/elec.htm
• Electricity Teaching Resources: http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/revision/science/electricity.htm
• Electronics for Kids: http://users.stargate.net/~eit/kidspage.htm
• Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez (2013)