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circuit

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art project

Can you complete an LED circuit using a graphite pencil? Learn about the conductive properties of graphite and draw your own design to see it light up!

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Use your graphite pencil and draw any design on your paper. Tip: Draw a simple image where all the lines are connected and make sure to create thick, bold lines with your pencil.

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In your drawing, leave at least a 1 cm gap on opposite ends of your drawing. Mark your positive and negative lines. 

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Once you're done with your design, place the battery on one of the gaps. Align the positive and negative ends with the graphite lines. 

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Take an LED and bend the bottom ends of the wires. 

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Tape the wire at the end of the lines across the other gap, aligning positive and negative wires. Make sure your LED stands upright. The wires should be in contact with the graphite lines. Tip: The longer side of the LED is the positive side.

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What's going on? Graphite is an electrical conductor, perfect for learning about circuits and electricity! Because graphite is low in conductivity, the success of a circuit will depend on the length, thickness, and amount of graphite on the paper. For example, the longer the graphite path is, the dimmer your light will be. It's time to experiment! Try drawing lines of different lengths. Does it make a difference to the LED? Try drawing lines of different thicknesses. Does that make a difference to the LED?

paper

graphite pencil - make sure they are art pencils!

foil

9v battery

leds

tape

Graphite Circuit

luminary

outdoor science projects

building

outdoor activities

Create a DIY camping lantern using a water bottle — and science.

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Gather the materials to make your DIY lantern.

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Cut out at least 8 circles out of your cardboard. You will want them to be larger in diameter than both your water bottle and tap light.

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Cut smaller circles out of the center of the larger ones turning them into rings. They should be just slightly larger than the diameter of your tap light so that it fits loosely in the center.

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Keep cutting out the circles until you have a stack that is taller than your tap light.

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Cut two more circles of the same size. Cut a hole smaller than the diameter of the water bottle into the center of one of them. Don't cut a hole in the other one. 

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Glue together all of the cardboard rings you first cut. Then, glue the one with the smaller hole on top. Leave the circle without a hole detached for now.

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Flip over your stack of rings and attach hook and loop fastener dots to the bottom. Attach the opposite hook and loop fastener dots to the circle without a hole.

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Insert your tap light face down into the stack of rings. The bottom cover is removable using the hook and loop fasteners, allowing the light to be turned on and off.

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Glue the water bottle to the top of your cardboard housing. The water bottle's base should cover the hole that the light shines through.

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Cut a length of ribbon, and glue both ends to the sides of the water bottle. This will act as the lantern's handle.

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The last step is to turn on the light and find a dark place to test our your lantern!

What's happening?
The water causes the light to change direction. (You can see the same effect by putting a pencil in a clear glass of water – viewed from the side, the pencil appears to be broken.) This change in direction is called refraction, and it causes the focused light from the tap light to disperse in all directions. This spreads the light out around your campsite, making it easier to see all around you.

water bottles

tap light

cardboard

craft knife (or circle cutter)

hook and loop fasteners

ribbon

hot glue

hot glue gun

Water Bottle Lantern

robot

robotics

engineering

recycled

recycled craft materials

indoor project

Transform old bottle caps into little robots that dance and scoot in all kinds of surprising ways!

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Stick the mounting sticker down on the top of the bottle cap.

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Stick the battery and motor on top of the bottle cap side-by-side. Important: Make sure the head of the motor is free to spin!

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Use the wire strippers to cut the leads of the motor and battery to be the same length. Strip the plastic off the ends of the wires.

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Twist the ends of the black wires together and the ends of the red wires together. Your bottle cap should start to vibrate!

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Use a piece of clay to stick the loose wires to the sides of the bottle cap.

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You can change how your bot steers by sticking a small piece of clay to the bottom of the bottle cap. See if you can find a way to get your bot to travel in a straight line, or try setting up an obstacle course for your bot to navigate!

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Add googly eyes or stickers to give your bots some personality! Set your bottle cap bot on a flat surface and watch it go! Your bot will behave differently on different surfaces. Does it run best on wood, cardboard, carpet, or tile?

bottle cap (any kind)

coin cell battery (with leads)

small vibration motor (with leads, 3V or less)

double stick foam

clay

wire stripper

Bottle Cap Bots

magnets

motion

physics

Use the power of electromagnetism to create your own spinning sculpture!&nbsp;Explore more spintastic artistic wonders with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/spin-art-machine-project-kit/2078" target="_self">Spin Art Machine </a>from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>! Engineer a motorized spinning platform, then load your machine with paper and drip paint to make it splatter.

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Stack your battery on top of your neodymium magnets with the flat side of the battery on the magnets.

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Cut a piece of magnet
wire about&nbsp;30 cm in length. Then&nbsp;bend the wire in half
to make a “V.” Keeping the very bottom of the "V" in place,&nbsp;mold&nbsp;the wire into a rectangle. The sides should be about 5 cm.&nbsp;

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Check to make sure the wire rectangle fits around the batter. You might need to adjust the&nbsp;the
wire so that
one end touches the
magnets at the bottom. Cut the wire as needed!

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Balance the "V" in the wire&nbsp;on top of the battery and see if it spins!&nbsp;

Getting the wire to
balance can take a few
tries—keep at it!

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Show off your spinning sculptures!

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Decorate! Make decorations for your spinning sculpture. Symmetrical decorations work best.

Don’t forget to
disconnect the wire.
The battery and wire
can get hot!

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These spinning sculptures are an example of homopolar motors. Homopolar motors are a type of motor that is powered by something called a Lorentz Force. 
The Lorentz Force occurs when an electric force (the electricity running through the copper wire) meets a magnetic force (the magnets). The collision of these two forces causes your sculpture to spin!
Watch <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/diy/videos/how-to-make-a-spinning-homopolar-motor-sculpture" target="_blank">this video</a> to learn more.&nbsp;

Wiggle Eye Set

Double-Sided Sticky Foam Set

AA Battery

Neodymium Magnets

Copper Wire

Paper

Markers

Spinning Sculptures

easy experiment

train

transportation

STEM

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Take one end of the copper wire and tape it to the dowel. Begin winding the copper into a coil, making sure the coils are as tightly packed as possible but do not overlap.

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Keep winding until you have created a coil that's at least 5 inches long.

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Remove the coil from the dowel, and stretch it out just enough so that each winding on the coil doesn't touch the one next to it.  

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Make two stacks of 3 neodymium magnets. Orient the stacks so they repel each other, and stick one stack to each side of the battery.&nbsp;

This project won't work with regular magnets like you'd use on a noteboard. We ordered these online.

Be very careful with these magnets and keep them away from small children! They can be very dangerous if swallowed.

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Slide your train into the copper coil. It should zip down the coil and out the other side! If your train doesn't move, try flipping the train around. If it still doesn't work, try flipping one of the stacks of batteries around.Experiment by adding or subtracting the number of magnets, or making a longer coil. With a long enough copper coil, you'll be able to make a circle that the train zips around continuously!What's going on?Try this. Grab a couple of fridge magnets and flip them so they repel each other. If you place one on a table and bring the other one close, the magnet on the table will slide away. That same magnetic push is what moves your train!How? Well, placing the battery inside the coil of wire creates an electrical circuit. (In fact, it creates a short circuit, which is why the battery burns out so quickly in this experiment.)And here's the part where the connection between electricity and magnetism becomes important. An electric current creates a magnetic field. In fact, a coil of wire like you made here creates a magnetic field very similar to the magnetic field of a plain old bar magnet. Now, the neodymium magnets have their own magnetic field, and they're sitting right in the middle of the wire's magnetic field. And just like a couple of fridge magnets, those magnetic fields interact with each other. That's where the push that propels your train comes from. The neodymium magnets get pushed along by the magnetic field of the coil of wire. 

20 Gauge Copper Wire

aaa battery

6 neodymium (12 mm diameter)

wooden dowels (1/2 inch diameter)

Tape

Electromagnetic Train

experiment

science experiment

chemistry

Use some household materials to plate your coins with copper! You can also try copper plating designs onto your coins!In this project, you’re going to do two things: put copper into a solution, and make that copper come out of the solution and stick to another piece of metal (the quarter). That first process is called “electrolysis” and the second is called “electroplating.” So how do you do those things? Well, their scientific-sounding names give you a clue: with electricity! Electrolysis is a way to dissolve bits of metal into acidic liquids like vinegar. When you run electricity through vinegar, the vinegar helps to carry electricity from one side of the circuit to the other. Those bits of the vinegar react with the copper, making little bits of copper leave the positive side of the circuit and go into the liquid. You’ll see this happening when your solution turns blue. Electroplating is a way to put those little bits of copper onto something else. The bits of copper are ionic, which means they have an electrical charge, like a balloon that you rubbed on your hair. And just like a charged-up balloon, ions love to stick to things! By giving them another electrified metal, they rush out of the solution and onto the metal’s surface. You’ll see this when your quarter starts to change colors. With just a little electricity, you can use electrolysis and electroplating to plate a quarter with copper. Does that make it look like a penny to you?Introduce your young electrical engineer to even more techniques with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/light-it-up-electronics-set-project-kit/4499" target="_self">Light-It-Up Electronics Set</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a> -- perfect for engineering your very own light-up circuits!

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Fill a cup up with vinegar so that it is about 2” high.

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Clip a copper strip to one end of both the red and black alligator clips. 

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Mark a small piece of tape with “+” and another with “-”. Then, tape them to either side of the plastic cup.

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Submerge the copper strips into the vinegar, taping the alligator clips to the cup so that they stay in place and aren’t in the vinegar. 

Use the + and - tape to keep track of which alligator clip is which. The black alligator clip is negative and the red alligator clip is positive. 

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Place the battery into the battery snap. Then, connect the black alligator clip to the black wire lead and the red alligator clip to the red wire lead. 

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Wait about 3 hours or until the vinegar has turned a greenish-blue. 

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Clean a quarter with rubbing alcohol. Try not to touch it after you’ve cleaned it. 

Panda Crate

Sprout: Koala Crate

Labs: Kiwi Crate

World: Atlas Crate

Studio: Doodle Crate

Labs: Tinker Crate

Studio: Maker Crate

Labs: Eureka Crate

14 at-home electronics projects for kids

Screen-free fun!