Accoutrement for my Classroom Alterego
Super Circuit Hero
How this quest started…
Every Valentine’s Day I like to make a special valentine with my son’s portrait. It usually involves some sort of crafting. This year (2018), I resolved to do something entirely different!
It wasn’t long before I was CIRCUIT OBSESSED and was, constantly, looking for things to ELECTRIFY! I advanced from one LED to many, from series to parallel circuits, from copper tape to solid wire, from one battery to multiple batteries with switches, buttons and dials, sound, lights and motion.
Halloween got the circuit treatment…
As did Dia de los Muertos…
Even the Coney Island “Put On A Funny Face Mask Contest”…
https://www.coneyisland.com/awards
Soon I was hacking everything in sight.
An Indian Buddhist shrine I’d rescued from the trash years earlier…
Two Exploratorium and one Chibitronics course later…
Exploratorium & Electric Circuit Boards:
SNOWFLAKE CIRCUITRY:
Five SENSES CIRCUITRY:
For the Pre-K
CITY CIRCUITRY MAP:
Inspired by the Paris Metro System
Hacked two of my Exploratorium Automatons
One of an Illuminated Automaton series:
Sewn Circuitry:
To view with SURPRISE! AR feature: upload Metaverse app & scan QR below.
Chibitronics Paper Circuit City: Experimenting with PROGRAMMED Circuitry
From a photograph my mother took in Indonesia
For the 2nd grade Brooklyn Bridge Unit: More Programmed Circuitry, FIREWORKS!
Illuminated Mandala Magic!
Illuminated Mandala Portrait
Interactive Illuminated Mandala
Can’t resist resistors if you want an illuminated RAINBOW mandala! No other way around that circuit! When using a combination of LEDs with varying frequencies, resistors help regulate the flow of electricity so that it gets distributed appropriately.
Resistor resources:
To calculate resistor value/Ohms, given voltage supply & voltage drop. Click screenshot below. My parameters: 6 volt power supply, varying voltage drop values depending upon color necessitating dedicated resistors per LED and enough power to illuminate 8-9 5mm LEDs. A series circuit would have required considerably more voltage, a parallel circuit, soldering a dedicated resistor to EACH LED, although I tried some ‘series parallel’ iterations where those colors with similar voltage drops shared a single resistor.
Dedicated individual resistors vs Shared ‘series parallel’ version
To identify resistor value by color code. Click screenshot below.
EXTRAS:
For a Chibitronics course: Programmed Circuitry
#1 in a series: Tribute to My Brainy Brother
#2 in the series: Tribute to My Brainy Brother – Circuit Doppelganger
CIRCUIT SAMPLER – for an Exploratorium Course
LIGHTS! MOTION! SOUND!
AMNH course –
Genetics, Genomics, Genethics
As part of the final project, I devised an Alien Genetics Assessment that included options for illuminated alien DNA traits.
Times being what they are demanded an
Illuminated Protest Poster series (#1 & 2 of an ongoing series):
Experimenting with going SOLAR:
