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Plan B (Paper Circuits)

This is the story of the best project I have ever done! I loved and the kids loved it. And it was the Plan B after I realized that Plan A wasn't going to happen.

So, plan A. For the past several years I have taught circuits. I would always do the standard circuit building with circuit kits. Yipee. The kids liked it but I wanted to up the wow factor. So, I had the big idea that we would learn circuits in December and the kids would make light up holiday shirts! Brilliant! And, we would do a fashion show on the day before winter break. Amazing! I told everyone about it and everyone was super excited.

Fast forward to November of this year when I started the nitty gritty of the planning...and figuring out what supplies I needed. And all my brilliant plans came to a screeching halt. This was going to be WAY too expensive and it was too late to fundraise. So, my co-teacher and I spent the next week desperately trying to come up with something circuits based that was fun, challenging and cheap. That's when we happened upon paper circuits. And thank goodness we did. We found plan B. And it turns out Plan B was AWESOME.

Plan B: students design holiday or winter themed cards that light up using paper circuits and LED lights. Here is what a basic paper circuit looks like:
makercamp.com

Using conductive copper tape, a 3 volt button battery, LED lights and regular tape to attach the lights you can create a working circuit that will light several LED lights. Through some creative purchasing, we were able to buy enough materials for each student to get one meter of copper tape, one battery and three LED lights. We also gave them the links needed to purchase their own materials if they wanted more materials that we were going to give them (and several did). Next year we are hoping to do some fundraising so we can buy more materials.

We kicked off the project by watching Holiday Light Fight, went over the task description and rubric and set the students on their way to designing their own circuits.  They had to decide where the lights were going to be and design the circuit accordingly.  We said "Ok, Go!" and the students stared at us with blank looks. This was a problem we didn't see coming. The kids had no idea where to start. We had built a sample card from a design we found on line. We hadn't designed our own.  Oops.

So, on the fly we had to save this awesome project. And I think it hit both of us at the same time. We figured out a work around and a method to designing the circuits so you could put the lights where they would fit into your card design. And moments like this kept happening as the project progressed. The next day was a new problem. And the day after was something else. And each day we had to solve the problem in the moment. And each day the kids rolled with it and kept working HARD on their cards. In fact, I have never seen them focus so hard. They loved it. Several even told me they had bought the materials and were making cards at home. Even I couldn't wait to make cards on my own. The students were problem solving, helping each other and sharing materials. And they could speak to the science involved. This project worked out better than I ever could have imagined and I can't wait to do it again next year. Every kid, at every level was able to create a card. Some needed more support than others but together we were able to make it happen for each and every one of them.

So, the moral of the story is try the projects that seem daunting. Allow for failure. Don't be afraid of it. Problem solve on the fly. It's OK to use Plan B. It may be better than Plan A. You'll be amazed what you and your students can do when you take a chance. 

You can check out some of the amazing work my students did below. They designed and built the circuits on their own.




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