Squishy Circuits
STEM Skills targeted: Electronics, Circuits, Engineering, Physics
Recommended age range: 5+
There are so many fun circuits toys available now but I think this is one of my favorites. I mean, how can you go wrong when you combine electricity with play doh?!
This toy is the result of a project carried out by the University of St Thomas as part of their Playful Learning Lab, focusing on the playful side of engineering and the design of fun STEM toys. The aim was to make circuits and electronics more accessible to kids of all ages by using conductive play dough.
The squishy circuits kit includes:
- Recipe card for making conductive and insulating play dough with household ingredients
- Motor
- Piezoelectric buzzer
- Mechanical buzzer
- AA battery pack
- 25 LEDs in various colors
Squishy circuits replaces the wires in traditional electronics kits with play doh. Each component has a probe that can be placed into the play dough which can be shaped into anything you like in order to complete the circuit.
Some fun examples of projects you could make include:
- a play doh animal with light-up eyes
- a squishy battery
- demonstration of parallel and serial circuits
- red-green-blue controller
- squishy helicopter with rotating blade
Squishy circuits can also be used with other electronics kits such as Makey Makey