It all started with a New Year’s Resolution…one of my K teachers asked her students to think of something they wanted to learn more about in 2017. When school started in January, she made a list of what they resolved to learn. One of her students wanted to learn more about circuits, so she approached me and asked if he could come to the maker space in the media center to learn more. I was so excited at this opportunity to explore this area with a K student. I scheduled him to come to the media center and he was there 1 hour and 30 minutes. He loved the experience and asked if he could come back. When he returned to class he told the other students what he had experienced and guess what?? They all told the teacher they wanted to learn about circuits. So I have been taking 4 students at a time from that K class, and we have been exploring the world of circuits.
One of the things I have used to start is the puppet of an LED light. This was purchased at ADAFRUIT.COM/MHO. http://www.adafruit.com
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I attached a real LED light to the puppet so the students understand what it is in the real world. We discuss the positive and negative side of the LED (the puppets legs). Next, they are given a coin battery and a real LED light. I asked them to make it “light up” without breaking the “legs” of the th LED light. It was unbelieveable how fast these K students figured it out! I turned off the lights and got all exicited about their success…they were excited, too! I then discussed how they can use this in upcoming projects, card making, etc. I showed them examples of projects that other students had done using these 2 items. They were then each given a set of snap circuits and they were told to follow the diagrams to make something. I told them they could work together or alone….and believeit or not, each time they chose to work by themselves…Once they have snapped together a project, they were so proud of themselves. I also had them rotate around each project, so they each got to test the different experiments designed by their classmates. They enjoyed trying each one out, too. I have invested in several kits from ELENCO ELECTRONICS, Inc. www.elenco.com and here are the titles of the kits:
SNAP CIRCUIT SOUND
SNAP CIRCUIT JR
SNAP CIRCUITS LIGHT
SNAP CIRCUIT MOTION
SNAP CIRCUITS 3D ILLUMINATION
DELUXE SNAP ROVER
SNAP CIRCUIT GREEN
SNAP CIRCUIT PRO
There are also many other things you can do with circuits…I have a Makey Make makeymakey.com/howto that can be used to show a complete circuit or broken circuit. Students love playing with this tool.
Another idea is to use squishy ciruits. Using conductive dough and insulating dough students can learn how to get an LED light to glow, a motor to run, or a buzzard to sound. The source I used even sells the dough already made! They have updated their early kits and I highly recommend their products. Here is the information:
Squishy Circuits www.SquishyCircuits.com
The students learn lots of things including failure. When their project does not work, they need to figure out why and sometimes they need to ask another student to help them. Collaboration occurs naturally and it is amazing how the problem can be as simple as having the batteries in the pack backwards.
I must admit, that when I was purchasing my materials for the makerspace I was thinking of 3rd graders and circuits, but I learned that K are very excited about this topic and they all told me and their teachers they ” cannot wait to come back to the makerspace”. This all started with one student’s New Year’s Resolution….and it spread to the entire class. Never underestimate what your younger students can do or what they are interested in. The sky is the limit…and it this case…it was circuits.