We’ve made play dough circuits before. They are super easy and the creative opportunities almost endless, so in the absence of any real snow so far this year thought we’d make a play dough light up snowman!
Materials
Battery Pack:
Batteries
Instructions
First we refreshed our memory about circuits, by creating parallel and series circuits and testing the LEDs in both orientations (Remember current can only go through an LED one way – the longer leg needs to go in the play dough connected to the positive end of the battery pack )
Play Dough Parallel Circuit
The electricity is shared between each component. If one LED breaks the other will still light up.
Play Dough Series Circuit
The current flowing across each component is the same. If one LED breaks the others will not light as the circuit is broken.
Our snowmen are an example of a parallel circuit. How would you make a snowman? What else could you make with play dough, LEDs and a battery pack?
We made a birthday cake a couple of years ago using a plastic cookie cutter to separate two segments of play dough so the current had to go through the LEDs to complete the circuit.
What do you think?
We’d love to see your play dough circuit creations, if you share on twitter, facebook or instagram don’t forget to tag us @ScienceSparks.
If you liked this, you might also like our light up street!
Last Updated on May 14, 2021 by Emma Vanstone
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