Simple electricity project with art twist

It was a warm and sunny weekend but the girls had so much else going on, we never did get on a hiking trail to enjoy the weather (which was a serious bummer!). The girls did however have fun making their own bit of sunshine with an electrical circuit art project at their 4-H club meeting.

This month's club project was a "series electrical circuit" and the kids did this with a few basic supplies from Radio Shack. I thought I'd share how the project was done because it was easy and fun and I think even moms who don't know much about electrical stuff could do this project with their kids.

 Circuits are connected up in many ways, but they all have three basic elements. There is a conductor through which the current flows (we used copper wire); a load, which is the equipment being powered (we used a 14-volt light bulb); and an energy source (a 9-volt battery).

Supplies we used:

14 volt light bulb
Mini screw lamp base
Momentary push button switch
Battery snap connector
30-gauge copper wire (red and black)
9-volt batterysmall clay pot

Step-by-step instructions:

RED WIRE, SWITCH
Connect RED WIRE on either side of SWITCH by twisting wire on to ends. We used a soldering tool to make this connection secure (although with a pair of needle-nose pliers, you could get a secure connection).

BLACK WIRE, BATTERY CONNECTOR, ELECTRICAL TAPE
Connect BLACK WIRE to BLACK BATTERY CONNECTOR WIRE. Connect RED WIRE to RED BATTERY CONNECTOR WIRE and then use electrical tape to secure both connections. (The kids in our group had a hard time twisting the wire together so be sure the copper is touching before they wrap with tape. Several kids in our group had to remove the electrical tape a time or two to make a better connection for their circuit to work.)

BULB SCREW BASE
Connect RED WIRE to one side of SCREW BASE then connect BLACK WIRE to one side of SCREW BASE. We used a soldering tool to make this connection secure as well (but again, a secure twisting of wire with a pair of pliers should do the trick).

CLAY POTS, LIGHT BULB
Put SCREW BASE through inside of CLAY POT. Place LIGHT BULB on top of CLAY POT and twist in to SCREW BASE. Then connect your BATTERY to the BATTERY CONNECTOR and press SWITCH to see your LIGHT BULB light up!

To keep this project interesting for my girls, we turned it in to an "electrical art project." They painted their clay pots last night and connected their circuits to them for a science-oriented work of art.

L. tucked her circuit in to the pot on the left while the pot on the right has the switch on the outside for easy access.

In gathering supplies to teach this class I found out that Radio Shack has a free monthly flier with step-by-step instructions to make a variety of simple electrical projects. There were some fun ideas and a good resource for parents with kids who like to build stuff.