For this module's creative project, I chose to collage a little rat sitting on a laptop. The rat is trying to start an assignment, but needs help coming up with an idea. To help the rat have a mental breakthrough, rather than a mental breakdown, pull its tail to give it an idea! I'm feeling very stressed about my impending finals and course registration, so I created this as a humorous expression of the tension I, and probably everyone else at TC, are experiencing this time of year.
To create my little circuit collage, I followed 4 steps:
1) Roughly sketch out your idea(s):
2) Pick an idea, then cut out your collage pieces and glue them down where you want. For complicated shapes, draw the reverse image of your shapes on the paper, cut them out, and then flip them over so you don't see the pencil marks. I tried to do this for the laptop keyboard in my college, but ultimately went the simpler route and overlapped thin strips of paper to form a grid. Some complicated shapes may require an X-acto knife and a cutting mat, but I couldn't find mine, so I relied on my scissors, one of the knife attachments on my linocutter, and a cutting board. I also would recommend a glue stick for this type of project, but I only had Elmer's clear glue lying around.
3) Map out your circuit on the back of your collage and tape it down. I used one yellow LED light, copper tape, and a 3V coin battery. I knew I wanted the rat's tail to act as a switch, so I watched this YouTube video on how to make a pulltab slider switch for a paper circuit. I copied the circuit layout from the video but adjusted it to fit where I wanted my tail slider and light bulb. Then I cut a slit at the base of the rat for its tail to slide through later. In this first image, you can see my circuit when it's in its off position. The positive side of the battery is facing up, and the negative prong of the LED is pointing towards the battery. I added a tab larger than the slit I cut earlier to the top of the tail and added copper tape to it. When you pull the tail down, the copper tape on the tab overlaps with the rest of the circuit. You can see this in the second image.
4) Troubleshooting. As you can see in the second image above, my circuit worked, but unfortunately, the tail switch had to be held down to make contact. Additionally, the batter is only held to the paper with copper tape, which won't hold well if I need to live or move my collage. To solve these issues, I cut strips of paper and taped them over and around the tail switch and battery to apply pressure and prevent tearing. Adding paper around the tail switch also stops it from being pushed too far up or down. In the image below, you can see the circuit in its off position with the paper strips taped in place.
Overall, this was a pretty fun and simple project. I didn't run into too many issues creating my circuit. I think getting to experiment with circuits in class, along with the fact that I did my Digital Stewardship presentation on circuitry, and used to build circuits for fun as a kid, helped me out. I actually got more frustrated with the collage portion of my project because I couldn't find all the materials I had intended to use, and I had to simplify the keyboard for time's sake.
I haven't taken Artistic Development of Children yet, but if I were to do this project with 4th graders, I would probably give them a clearer theme. I would also show them lots of examples, because I think the hardest part about this was coming up with a creative switch that isn't just functional. Seeing lots of examples of different creative switches might help them to come up with their own. I also like the idea of the first part of class focusing on exploring circuits as a material and experimenting before students create their final collages. We would also need to go over safety and rules at the very start!
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