Asee peer logo

Exchange: Using Squishy Circuit Technology in the Classroom

Download Paper |

Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Thinking Outside the Box! Innovative Curriculum Exchange for K12 Engineering

Tagged Division

K-12 & Pre-College Engineering

Page Count

9

Page Numbers

22.672.1 - 22.672.9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17953

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17953

Download Count

467

Request a correction

Paper Authors

author page

Samuel Abbas Johnson University of St. Thomas

biography

AnnMarie Thomas University of Saint Thomas

visit author page

AnnMarie Thomas is an assistant professor of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas, and co-director of the UST Center for Pre-Collegiate Engineering Education. Her teaching and research focus on Engineering Design and K-12 Engineering Education. Prior to her appointment at UST, she was a faculty member at Art Center College of Design.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Exchange: Using Squishy Circuit Technology in the ClassroomThis paper presents a curriculum utilizing squishy circuits as an educational tool.Squishy circuits are constructed with conductive and insulating play dough. Thisallows students to sculpt their own circuits. Students are taught in a hands-onexercise, using batteries and basic electronic components (light emitting diodes,DC motors, buzzers, etc.). With this curriculum, electronics and circuit buildingconcepts can be presented at a much younger age than with traditional methods,and there is no need for soldering irons or proto-boards. Some of the fundamentalconcepts that are explored include: electrical resistance, Ohm’s Law, series andparallel circuits, current flow in a circuit, diodes, and batteries. Squishy circuitsalso allow for some chemistry to be taught. The conductive dough is a salt-basedionic substance. This allows for students to be introduced to electro-ionic currentand electrolysis. More advanced applications, such as coupling the dough with amicroprocessor, will be discussed.This paper will present recipes for both the conductive and nonconductive dough,as well as exercises that can be used in the classroom.

Johnson, S. A., & Thomas, A. (2011, June), Exchange: Using Squishy Circuit Technology in the Classroom Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17953

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015