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Project 2 of 10

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Advanced Bricks

Up to 1 hour

Ages 8 to 14

What Will You Learn?

Now that you’ve made your Core Bricks and built your first Scrappy Circuits, you may be looking for new challenges. These components offer advanced action bricks, new switches, and other useful items.

Build the Buzzer Brick

Each dollar store carries a different version of this window alarm. They all are basically same, but the main way they differ is how you access the batteries. Some need a screwdriver. Some have the access in the front and others in the back.

Explore how your window alarm works. When the magnet is removed from the side, the alarm goes off.

Step 1

Turn off the window alarm. Remove batteries from the window alarm. (If needed, open the case.)

Step 2

Straighten two paper clips. Use pliers to create battery-sized loops at the end of each paper clip.

Step 3

Straighten two paper clips. Use pliers to create battery-sized loops at the end of each paper clip. Wrap the looped ends in aluminium foil.

Step 4

Cut a strip of cardboard. It should be the height of one of the removed batteries. Fold the cardboard in a zig-zag or accordion-style.

Step 5

Insert the folded cardboard between the aluminum foil.

Step 6

If batteries were on the inside, close the window alarm. Allow the two straightened paper clips to hang out of each side.

Step 7

Clip each straightened paper clip with a binder clip to the edge of your cardboard brick. Turn on.

Step 8

Label the Buzzer Brick

Build a Light Sensor Brick

The word “photo” means light. Resistors slow the flow of electricity. So a “photoresistor” uses light to slow the flow of electricity.

Make sure you’re in a well-lit room for this brick. Cover the photoresistor with your finger and watch what happens.

Make sure to sand the binder clips to make sure you have a great connection.

Build 9

Disassemble the LED night light and remove photoresistor. You will be able to see it from the front of the nightlight. It will be behind clear plastic.

Build 10

Stretch apart the legs of the photoresistor.

Build 11

Important: Sand each binder clip where it touches the photoresistor.

Build 12

Clip the binder clips around the photoresistor.

Build 13

Remove the bottom clips.

Build 14

Label the brick.

Knife Switch

Knife switches are very cool. They are usually much bigger. You might recognize them in movies like Frankenstein or Young Frankenstein.

Step 15

Add a rubber band across a brick. Clip two binder clips to the rubber band and then have them stand up.

Step 16

Attach a paper clip to the closed arms of a binder clip. Poke a paper fastener through cardboard, then binder arm, then paper clip, then the other binder arm, then another piece of cardboard. Separate the the fasteners legs.

Step 17

Open the other binder clip and add a small piece of paper or cardboard to keep the arms slightly separated.

Step 18

Attach the scrappy clips by sliding them onto the black clip of each binder clip.

Step 19

Label.

Tilt Switch

Tilt switches are very simple and a lot of fun. They close (complete the circuit and turn a brick on) by tilting the brick in a certain direction. These work great for alarms when they are connected with a piezo buzzer or LED light.

Step 20

Cut a short piece of a straw and tape it to a brick.

Step 21

Add a binder clip perpendicular to the straw. The bump at the end of the binder clip arm should rest right on the edge of the straw opening.

Step 22

Straighten the outside arm of a paper clip. Position the curved end of the paper clip inside the straw the exact same amount as the binder clip arm.

Step 23

Place a small piece of cardboard between the binder clip and the paper clip. Tape in place.

Step 24

Cut a piece of the straw about one inch long. Insert one leg (sharp part) of your scissors inside the straw and cut.

Step 25

Tighten the loop of your straw and tape. Wrap in aluminium foil.

Step 26

Test to see if when the aluminium-foil-wrapped-straw touches the binder clip arm and paper clip if it touches both the paper clip and binder arm and completes the circuit. You might want to do this by adding a power brick and LED brick to make a simple circuit.

Step 27

If everything works, then tape the straw closed. You don’t want the tape to be able to stick to the foil-wrapped-straw inside the straw. Before you tape the straw closed, add a little piece of tape to the tape itself — sticky side to sticky side. This way that part of the tape won’t be sticky and should cover the straw opening.

Step 28

Label.

The Resistor Brick

Resistors are very common. They slow down (resist) electricity. The colored bands code each resistor so you know how much electricity it allows through. If you find one in an old toy (and the legs are long enough) you can make a Resistor Brick.

Step 29

Find your resistor and if harvesting a resistor from stuff around the house, cut it out and try to keep the legs as long as possible.

Step 30

Find your resistor and if harvesting a resistor from stuff around the house, cut it out and try to keep the legs as long as possible.

Step 31

Add a binder clip to each side of your brick.

Step 32

Insert the resistor legs under the clips.

Step 33

Label the brick.

What's Next?

Mix It Up

How can you use these advanced bricks? Here are some ideas!

Pair your tilt switch with your LED. Attach both to a plastic car or piece of cardboard. send it down a slide on the playground or put it on a swing. What happens to the light as the switch moves?
Pair the Buzzer brick with a Core switch. Then learn to send Morse Code messages using instructions in the Scrappy Circuits Zine.
Pair your photoresistor with your LED Brick to make a cool nightlight.
Order or find different colored LEDs to make new bricks. Use the resistor bricks to combine multiple colors of LEDS into a circuit to make your own Fairy or Christmas lights. Or use resistors with your LED so you can use different batteries, like AA or AAA. Learn more!

Game On!

Want even more advanced bricks? Build the Baller Brick, Game Brick, or Hole in One Brick then pair it with your Buzzer to create fun games to play.

Scrappy Circuits - The Magic Wand and Buzzer Bricks

Take It Further

The Scrappy Circuits book by Mike Carroll is now available!

Scrappy Circuits is an imaginative “do-it-yourself” way to learn about electrical circuits for less than $1 per person. Raid your junk drawer for simple office supplies, add a little cardboard, pay a visit to a local dollar store, and you are on your way to countless fun projects for learning about electronics. No soldering or expensive equipment required.

Easy to read instructions and tons of step-by-step photos guide scrappy adventurers through the process of building over 40 unique “bricks” – DIY building blocks that can be combined into all sorts of fun and scrappy projects. Make things that light up, alarms that buzz, games that keep score, and learn about electronics, all while having fun along the way!

Scrappy Circuits features resources, step-by-step illustrated building instructions, project ideas, challenges, troubleshooting steps, jokes, and advice for teachers.

Parts Needed:

Buzzer Brick

dollar store window alarm
cardboard
2 small binder clips
2 paper clips
aluminium foil

Resistor Brick

Take apart some old junk and find a resistor. It is a small tan cylinder with colored stripes.
cardboard
2 small binder clips

Light Sensor Brick

a photoresistor (These can be easily found in a dollar store nightlight. Make surge it is the type that turns on/off automatically based on if it it night or daytime. You can also get another LED from these, too!)
2 small binder clips
cardboard

Knife Switch

Rubber band
Brad paper fastener
Jumbo paper clip
Scrap cardboard

Tilt Switch

cardboard
2 small binder clips
straw
one paper clip

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See More Projects in these topics:

Electronics Engineering STEM or STEAM

See More Projects from these themes:

The Canteen (Mess Hall and Recycling Station) The Shop (Makerspace)

Michael

Scrappy Circuits breaks down the many barriers to teaching and learning invention literacy like pre-requisite skills, cost, and access. It is a modular system of bricks built by the learner and sourced from commonly found objects. Binder clips act as terminals for electricity to travel through each brick and can be connected using alligator clips or homemade Scrappy Clips. The first five Scrappy Circuits bricks, known as the Core Bricks, can be constructed for around a dollar out of some office supplies, an LED tea-light, and an imagination. Larger groups can build these for around twenty dollars and each learner will be able to keep their bricks and continue to explore and invent. The learning doesn't stop there! The Scrappy Circuits journey can continue with many more bricks and projects all made out of common and inexpensive items.

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Maker Camp Project Standards

Based on NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)

NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards. Learn more.

Forces and Motion

3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationships of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each other.
HS-PS4-5. Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.

CCSS (Common Core State Standards)

The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA).

Measurement & Data

Grades K-2
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.MD.A.1 Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.A.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.1.MD.A.2 Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end; understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.1 Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.2 Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.3 Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.4 Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing the length difference in terms of a standard length unit.
Grades 3-5
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.B.3 Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step "how many more" and "how many less" problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.MD.A.1 Know relative sizes of measurement units within one system of units including km, m, cm; kg, g; lb, oz.; l, ml; hr, min, sec. Within a single system of measurement, express measurements in a larger unit in terms of a smaller unit.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.MD.C.5 Recognize angles as geometric shapes that are formed wherever two rays share a common endpoint, and understand concepts of angle measurement.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.A.1 Convert among different-sized standard measurement units within a given measurement system (e.g., convert 5 cm to 0.05 m), and use these conversions in solving multi-step, real world problems.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.MD.C.3 Recognize volume as an attribute of solid figures and understand concepts of volume measurement.

Ratios & Proportional Relationships

Middle School
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.1 Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.RP.A.3 Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.RP.A.1 Compute unit rates associated with ratios of fractions, including ratios of lengths, areas and other quantities measured in like or different units.
- CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.RP.A.2 Recognize and represent proportional relationships between quantities.

ISTE Standards (International Society for Technology in Education)

The ISTE Standards provide the competencies for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, providing a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use of technology in schools worldwide.

1.1 Empowered Learner

Summary: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving, and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
1.1.a Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
1.1.b Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.
1.1.c Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
1.1.d Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

1.2 Digital Citizen

Summary: Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical.
1.2.a Students cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world.
1.2.b Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.
1.2.c Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property.
1.2.d Students manage their personal data to maintain digital privacy and security and are aware of data-collection technology used to track their navigation online.

1.3 Knowledge Constructor

Summary: Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
1.3.a Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
1.3.b Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.
1.3.c Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
1.3.d Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

1.4 Innovative Designer

Summary: Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
1.4.a Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.
1.4.b Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
1.4.c Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
1.4.d Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.

1.5 Computational Thinker

Summary: Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.
1.5.a Students formulate problem definitions suited for technology-assisted methods such as data analysis, abstract models and algorithmic thinking in exploring and finding solutions.
1.5.b Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.
1.5.c Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.
1.5.d Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.

NGSS MS.Engineering Design

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.

MS-ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
MS-ETS1-2. Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
MS-ETS1-3. Analyze data from tests to determine similarities and differences among several design solutions to identify the best characteristics of each that can be combined into a new solution to better meet the criteria for success.
MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.

For additional information on using content standards with our projects please visit the Maker Camp Playbook.

NGSS 3-5.Engineering Design