STEMU Day 2 Part 2 Seeable E-textiles

Our second project was to sew a bracelet using e-textile thread and LED lights.  I quickly learned that my sewing was in need of drastic improvement before i do anything serious.  You must weave then thread through the entire pattern route or the thread wires risk touching and shorting out.  It was a fun activity that took us adults quite a while.  This would be a great undertaking for students.  Perhaps its an opportunity to integrate with CTE Classes.

Our simple test circuit.

The wires here can touch shorting the circuit.  Must weave thread.

Finished project had on/off switch and would only work if metal button was snapped to close the circuit.  

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STEMU Day 2 Part 1 Squishy Circuits

Today we used conductive dough and a non conductive dough to create circuits.  I saw snowmen and wreaths and other fun creations.  The dough acted as a resistor to help control the amount of volts and power through the led bulbs.  We saw Ohms Law in action as we dropped 6 volts to a useable 2.2. 

Our tools for the day.

My creations today.

STEM U Day 1

Today we created paper circuits using two small batteries, copper tape, led lights, and paper backgrounds.

Part 1 was to create a simple circuit to light up a single bulb in our name tag.  I loved how something simple likens name tag could allow us to study circuits.  A fun and engaging activity.

(This is the back of my name tag)

Parts 2 was creating both a parallel and series circuit.  I tried to create both in the same circuit and tried to just adjust the bridge to bypass the parts of the circuit I didn’t need.  Turns out it didn’t work very well.

(This is the back of my series/ parallel circuits)

I saw a peer work a snowman into her parallel circuits.  Just showed me that I’m only limited by my imagination.