Plan
- What do you know about electricity and circuits?
- What parts make up a circuit? Use a simple circuit to guide you.
- What does a conductor do?
- What types of materials do you think conduct electricity?
- What does an insulator do? What types of materials insulate?
- How will you make your groups of two or three?
Do
Activity #1: Test the dough
- Look at your two balls of playdough. One is a conductor and the other is an insulator.
- How can you test them to find out which is which? How can you tell them apart?
- Use wires, a battery and an LED light to figure out which playdough is the conductor and which one is the insulator.
- How will the conductor effect your circuit? The insulator?
Activity #2: Circuit Investigations
- What happens when you connect the LED and battery to two pieces of conducting playdough that are touching? What about two pieces of insulating playdough?
- What happens when you change the shape of the playdough to make it thinner or thicker?
Activity #3: Circuit Creatures
- Use your conducting and insulating playdough to design a creature that lights up! How many lights do you want to use?
- What other electrical components could you use?
Review
- What do you know now that you did not know before?
- What did you learn about electricity?
- How did you figure out which playdough was the conductor? The insulator?
- How can you use this technique in camp?
- What do you want to know more about?
- What elements of STEM were in this adventure? Science? Technology? Engineering? Mathematics?
- What did you like about this adventure?
- What did you not like about the adventure?
- How would you do this adventure differently?
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Remember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map
Materials
- 9V batteries and holders with wire leads (one per person)
- LED bulbs (2-3 per person)
Conducting playdough (makes enough for two or three people)
- 250 mL flour
- 60 mL salt
- 5 mL vegetable oil
- 250 mL water
- Food colouring
Insulating playdough (makes enough for two or three people)
- 250 mL flour
- 125 mL sugar
- 15 mL vegetable oil
- 125 mL water
- Food colouring
Keep it Simple
- Learn to be safe around electrical circuits! Learn about what materials conduct electricity and which ones do not.
Take it Further
- Learn how a household appliance works as you dissect one!
