Handout for Tinker's presentation at the Illinois Youth Services Institute's Presentation

1. Paper Circuits & LED Cards
Cost: Level of difficulty: Age group:
Size of group: 12-15 kids Program duration: 1 hour-1.5 hours
Prep time: Low Staffing: 1-2 people
Equipment: LEDs, copper tape, CR2032 batteries, crayons, colored pencils, tape, scissors, card stock, thumb
tacks, cardboard scraps, templates, tape, glue (Amazon.com).
Program Tips:
 Use squishy circuits or Little Bits to introduce how circuits work
 Kids/Teens can create also anything using paper, copper tape LEDs, batteries - cards, lanterns or adding
LEDS to pictures
 Positive to positive and negative to negative when creating a circuit with the LEDs and batteries.
tinkerfolks@gmail.com http://tinkergroup.wordpress.com @TinkerGroup facebook.com/tinker.folks
Contact information:
Alison Tseng, Algonquin Public Library, atseng@aapld.org
Katie LaMantia , Schaumburg Township District Library, klamantia@stdl..org
Renee Neumeier, Evanston Public Library, rneumeier@cityofevanston.org
Arduinos
Cost: Level of difficulty: Age group:
Size of group: 10 kids (1 kit and computer for 2 kids) Program duration: 1-1.5 hours
Prep time: High Staffing: 1-2 people
Equipment: Computers, Arduino kit (including LEDs, wires, resistors, etc.) , Arduino software
Prep: Download free Arduino software from www.arduino.cc and Arduino codes . Assemble the boards and
breadboards for each Arduino kit.
Program Tips:
 Purchasing a kit gives your materials for a variety projects
 Arduinos use the coding language C/C++
 Start with a simple program like blink, have teens look at the code and see if they figure out how to set-
up Arduino, breadboard LED and resistor to work
 Once they’ve mastered the project encourage kids to tweak the code
 Introduce new projects the same way—some favorites are projects that play music or light up multiple
LEDS

2. tinkerfolks@gmail.com http://tinkergroup.wordpress.com @TinkerGroup facebook.com/tinker.folks
Squishy Circuits
Cost: Level of difficulty: Age group:
Size of group: 12-15 kids Program duration: 45-60 minutes
Prep time: Medium Staffing: 2 people
Equipment: Squishy Circuits kits (Amazon.com) or battery pack, buzzer, motor, conductive and insulating
dough, 10mm diffused LED (Radio Shack), food coloring
Prep Time: 30 minutes to make conductive/insulating dough
Program tips:
 Use activities from the St. Thomas University website http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/
SquishyCircuits/BUILDINGCIRCUITS.htm
Little Bits
Cost: Level of difficulty: Age group:
Size of group: 12-15 kids Program duration: 45-60 minutes
Prep time: Low Staffing: 1-2 people
Equipment: Little Bits http://littlebits.cc/ (educator discount)
Program tips:
 Tons of project ideas on the website http://littlebits.cc/
 Create an open ended question— ex: make something that lights up, make something that vibrates
Wearables
Cost: Level of difficulty: Age group:
Size of group: 12-15 kids Program duration: 1.5-2 hours
Prep time: Low Staffing: 2 people
Equipment: Felt, lace, sewing needles, thread, conductive thread, snaps, 10mm LEDs, CR2032 batteries,
Adafruit sewable battery holder (Ada Fruit, amazon.com)
Program tips:
 Talk through how circuits work
 May need to go over sewing basics
 Try, fail , revise