Project 4 of 10
In Progress

An Introduction to Paper Circuits

30-45 min

Ages 8-13

What Will You Learn?​

In this project you’ll make your own LED circuit card and learn how to design both series and parallel circuits to light up your creation!

This project is a sample from our Circuit Scouts Kit, available in the Maker Shed. There are also a guidebook and online educator’s curriculum available for free.

Practicing with Conductive Tape

Today Maker Tape will be used to conduct electricity in our circuit. So that we don’t waste this valuable resource, we’re going to practice with masking tape on a table first.

  1. Start by using your masking tape to create straight lines, sharp angles, and curves. (Figure 3a)

  2. Whenever possible, we want to use continuous pieces of tape, even when changing direction.

  3. To create a right angle, we fold the corners. Lay down tape to the edge of the corner. Then fold your tape in the opposite direction you want to turn so that the sticky side is face up and flatten the tape. Next, fold the tape back over in the direction of your turn and flatten again. (Figure 3b)

  4. Practice this fold several times with masking tape and then practice with Maker Tape on scrap paper. Try different corners and curves. Need more help? Try this tutorial.

Figure 3a
Figure 3b

Using the Templates

Next, we’re going to use the template to make a series circuit and a parallel circuit. Start with the series circuit.

  1. Pick an LED. Remember that the long lead is the positive side and the short lead is the negative side

  2. Gently bend the leads out from the center so that the LED can fit flatly against the paper. Be careful not to break the leads off the LED. If desired, mark the positive lead with black marker for easy identification.

  3. Place the LED on the paper as shown, being careful to line up positive and negative leads correctly.

  4. Apply Maker Tape along the lines on the template and OVER the leads of the LED. Use your finger or fingernail to press the tape down against the LED leads. (Figure 3c)

  5. Make a small loop of Maker Tape with the sticky side facing out. Use this to attach your battery to the paper with the negative side down. (Figure 3d and 3e)

  6. Fold the paper over along the dotted line and press down to complete the circuit. Your LED should light up!

  7. Complete both templates. How are they the same? How do they differ?

Circuit Scouts template
Figure 3c
Figure 3d
Figure 3e

Troubleshooting

If your LED doesn’t light up, you may need to troubleshoot your circuit.

  • Check for breaks or tears in the Maker Tape path and patch them if needed.

  • Make sure the positive side of the battery is connected to the positive side of the LED, and the negative side of the battery is connected to the negative side of the LED. Students can experiment with turning the battery over.

  • Make sure the LED is solidly connected to the Maker Tape path. Press down on the LED to test if the connection is an issue.

  • Make sure the battery is not out of charge.

  • Make sure you are not “shorting” the circuit by overlapping the Maker Tape in the wrong location or allowing the tape to touch both sides of the battery. A short allows current to travel along an unintended path.

Need more help? Chibitronics has a great Troubleshooting Guide.

What's Next?

Materials:

  • Coin Cell Batteries
  • LEDs
  • Conductive Maker Tape Roll
  • Masking Tape
  • Paper
  • Markers or Colored Pencil
  • Template

All materials are available as part of the Circuit Scouts Kit at the Maker Shed.

See More Projects in these topics:

Arts & Crafts Electronics Paper Crafts STEM or STEAM

See More Projects from these themes:

Art/Craft Studio The Shop (Makerspace)
Maker Camp
Maker Camp is a do-it-yourself online resource to help leaders like you organize a summer camp that engages children in making. Our goal is to provide you and your campers with the inspiration and the helpful resources, along with many possible projects to fit a wide range of interests and abilities. The idea is to focus on making as a playful, social activity. Maker Camp provides enough support for anyone to get started. Making provides experiences that help children become self-directed learners and good problem-solvers.
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Maker Camp Project Standards

Based on NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards)

National Core Arts Standards

The National Core Arts Standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school. These standards provide goals for Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts with cross-cutting anchors in Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting through art. The Anchor Standards include:
  1. Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
  2. Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
  3. Refine and complete artistic work.
  4. Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.
  5. Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
  6. Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work.
  7. Perceive and analyze artistic work.
  8. Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
  9. Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
  10. Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
  11. Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
Please visit the website for specific details on how each anchor applies to each discipline.

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.

National Core Arts Standards

The National Core Arts Standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school. Also see Standards with cross-cutting anchors in Creating, Performing, Responding, and Connecting through art for Visual Arts.

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

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards.
  • 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
  • 3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
  • 3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.
For additional information on using content standards with our projects please visit the Maker Camp Playbook.
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