Circuit Scouts for Educators and Parents

What You’ll Do:

WELCOME to the World of Circuits! In this workshop, educators will learn to use the Circuit Scout Kit to teach the basics of how electrical circuits work and then put them to use to make their own unique inventions including amazing light-up cards, buzzing vibrobots, and LED circuits you can wear. We’ll work through the four basic projects included in the kit so that you can confidently share them with young makers in clubs, camps, afterschool programs, or at home. All of the educational STEM content behind the kit projects will be covered, with ideas for how to share it with kids in a fun way. Tried and true tips for teaching electricity and circuits with be reviewed as well, including ways to keep your students safe. Plus, we’ll talk about the design process so that you can lead your young makers as they remix, redesign, innovate, and create with the Circuit Scout Kit.

Skills you will learn:

In this workshop, we will explore the basics of circuits and electricity, the difference between series and parallel circuits, properties of conductive and insulating materials, the basics of motors, the basics of switches, the basics of forces and motion, principles of the design process and techniques for successful maker education.

A kit is required for this program:

Get Kit Here

What You’ll need

The Circuit Scout kit includes:

• Project Booklet
• Assorted LEDs
• Coin Cell Batteries
• Shake It Board (battery pack and vibrating motor)
• Chip LED
• Tilt Switch Chip
• Pager Disc Motor
• Roll of conductive Maker Tape
• Metal Paper Clips

Other materials:

• Scissors
• Invisible Tape
• Glue Stick
• Adhesive Foam Tape
• Copy Paper
• Craft Felt or Foam
• Markers, Colored Pencils
• Ruler or Tape Measure

What is Included:

• A free membership to Make: Community
• Access to discussion forums and community groups
• Post event access to session recordings

About your Facilitator:

Sandy Roberts has been a certified STEM educator for over 15 years both inside and outside the classroom. She is the author of The Big Book of Maker Camp Projects and the creator of the Make: Circuit Scouts kit. Sandy has run Maker Camp programs for more than a decade teaching thousands of young makers about electronics and other topics. Now she is part of the Make: team that brings Maker Camp to hundreds of locations worldwide each summer.