Experiment with different components to explore electricity and circuits in a fun way!
Electricity is an essential part of our daily lives. We need it to:
Electricity in Malta is generated at the Power Station in Delimara. We also have imported electricity delivered by an interconnector under the sea between Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, in Malta and Marina di Ragusa, in Sicily.
Another source of electricity in our homes can come from solar panels or wind turbines. Solar panels change Solar Energy into Electrical Energy whilst wind Turbines change Kinetic Energy from the wind to Electrical Energy. Wires allow us to transport electricity to our households and to all our appliances and they are made of a material called a conductor.
A conductor is a material that allows electricity to pass through. Copper is usually used for wires we find in our appliances. Have you ever noticed that wires are always covered with another material, a type of plastic or rubber? These materials are known as insulators. An insulator is what we call a material that is good at stopping electricity from flowing through. This is very important as it stops us from being anywhere close to the conductor that is carrying a lot of electricity through it. We use insulators around conductors to make sure we are safe from electrical shocks. Protection from electrical shocks is needed since they can affect the nervous system, can burn tissues and organs, and can also cause muscle spasms and heart attacks.
In this experiment, we are going to create two special doughs from basic items in our kitchen. The dough we’re going to make will replace these conductors and insulators. In fact, we will be making a dough that allows electric current to flow and this is called conductive dough. This is because the salt and cream of tartar in the mixture will break apart into ions which allow current to flow through. We will also make an insulating dough which includes sugar, an ingredient that does not allow current to flow when mixed with flour.
Important: You will need to ask an adult for some help as we need to use the stove.
| Conductive dough |
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Ingredients needed
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Method
* may be substituted with 9 tbsp of lemon juice |
| Insulating dough |
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Ingredients needed
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Method
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Items needed to make a circuit:
• LEDs
• Wires (you can use foil if you do not have wires available at home)
• Metal items such as paper clips, nails, screws, coins etc… to make a switch
• Motor
• Battery pack (9v battery will work just as good)
All that is left now is to enjoy making circuits with the dough you have just created. Here are some points you need to look out for. When connecting an LED to the conductive dough, make sure that you insert one end of the LED into a piece of dough and the other end in another piece of dough. These two pieces of dough need to be separated by a layer of insulating dough otherwise you’ll have a short circuit.
TIP: You can create different coloured doughs for both conductors and insulators. This way, you can create dough sculptures that can light up using LEDs. Also, remove all the components attached to the dough when you’re done with it as the components will corrode and get rusty.
Here is another example of a circuit build with simple materials which you can find at home. For electricity to pass through a circuit, the circuit needs to be closed, and for this we use switches. For example, we have switches attached to our home light circuits so that we can close and open the circuits whenever we want which means we are able to switch on and off lights whenever we want.
One thing that you should notice is that, to complete the circuit, one piece of foil needs to be wrapped around the thread of the bulb (first connection) and the other piece of foil needs to be touching the bottom of the bulb (second connection).
In this case, instead of wires, we are going to use aluminium foil since it is also a conductor and allows electricity to pass through. The gap indicated by the arrow is the space for a switch.
Test out different items that you can find around your home to see whether they conduct electricity and whether they can be used as a switch in your circuit to make it complete.
Share your creations with us through our social media to help inspire others 😊
