This workshop is for 7 - 13 year olds. The children make up small christmas trees and cards before the workshop. These are then decorated with a simple LED circuit that the childen build for themselves. In the process they learn about series and parallel circuits, LED's, wiring, resistors and soldering. This is essential electronics / physics learnt in a fun way.
In addition to learning about basic wiring (soldering) they learn that LED's and batteries need to be connected correctly, and that in a series circuit if one component is incorrectly wired, it affects the others in the chain. They can choose 4 LED's from a variety of colours: red, orange, yellow and green (we also include an extra 5th flashing LED not shown in the diagram that wires directly across the battery).
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Our xmas LED circuit: two series circuits (each containing 2 LEDs and a resistor) wired in parallel.
photo of the 'birds nest' construction - long wires allow arranging the LED's as desired on the tree or card.
stages in making the circuit: cutting, striping, wiring and soldering
stages in making the circuit: testing out 2 of the LED's at the half-way stage
group shot of various creations with their LED circuits fitted in place
THE CREATIVE SCIENCE CENTRE
Dr Jonathan Hare, Physics Dept., The University of
Sussex Brighton, East Sussex. BN1 9QJ.
