Squishy Circuits

Rethinking Squishy Circuits | FabLearn Fellows At Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn, one of the activities youth teachers take out to Boston community organizations each year is Squishy Circuits. This cool activity was originally developed by AnnMarie Thomas at University of St. Thomas School of Engineering in St. Like many maker educators, we wanted to get better at what we were teaching and bring some fresh new ideas to an old tried and true activity. Teaching Series and Parallel Circuits We noticed that our youth teachers were struggling with the concept of series vs. parallel circuits and we wanted to be more thoughtful about teaching the difference between series and parallel circuits. This gave us some ideas! Kinesthetic activites are very helpful to our youth in understanding concerpts, so Alex developed one to reinforce the idea by using an energy stick to demonstrate the completed circuits and reinforce their understanding of parallel vs. series circuits. Rescue Me! Using RGB LEDs with Squishy Circuits

Squishy Circuits Using a concentric design and resistive dough, cool parallel circuits are possible All the ingredients that you need to make your own conductive and resistive Play-Doh Wrap the dough in plastic film and store in ziploc bags to keep it moist longer Integrating LED lights and power source into a sculptural design Exploring complex circuitry becomes natural We use food coloring for conductive dough, and leave the resistive kind white, so you always know which one you're using We like to use 9V batteries. Sometimes conductive Play-Doh is just Play-Doh Troubleshooting with a partner Using the dough to make a direct connection between the battery and an LED light