Circuits

Circuits are fun to build and Fun Dough is fun to play with. In this experiment, you will combine the two: make circuits out of Fun Dough. In this experiment, you can trace the circuit diagram out with Fun Dough and watch the lights light up. You’ll explore the difference between series and parallel circuits.

Have you ever been using a microwave and a hair dryer at the same time and your whole kitchen loses power? Why do you think that happens? What do you think you could do to stop that from happening?

Put a small amount of Fun Dough between the positive (+) side of one battery and the negative (-) side of the other battery.

Place the long leg of one LED on the positive (+) side of the battery combo and place the short leg on the negative (-) side. Does it light up? If so, great! If not, make sure you have positive to negative with the batteries and the long leg is on the positive side.

Create two “snakes” with the Fun Dough. These are your wires.

Attach one snake to the positive end of the battery and the other one to the negative end. Make sure the snakes don’t touch each other.

Put the long leg of the LED into the Fun Dough snake attached to the positive side of the battery and the LED’s short leg into the snake attached to the negative side. (Fig. 1)

What happens?

Trace out the lines on Circuit Diagram 1 (below) using Fun Dough. A circuit diagram shows all the element of your circuit and how they are connected. Usually you would use wires to create a circuit from the circuit diagram, but Fun Dough works pretty well, too.

Place the stuck-together batteries in the area on the diagram marked “batteries” and attach to the Fun Dough “wires.”

Use an LED to bridge the gap, making sure the long leg is closest to the positive (+) side of the battery.

What happens to the LED?

Touch the two “wires” of Fun Dough together. What happens to the LED?

Circuits can be built as series circuits, parallel circuits, or a combination of the two. What type of circuit do you think this is?

As with the simple circuit, use the Fun Dough to trace out the wires, connect the battery and bridge the gaps with LEDs as shown in the circuit diagram below. Make sure the long legs of the LEDs are close to the positive (+) side of the battery. (The LEDs should light up)

Take out one of the three LEDs. What happens to the other two?

Replace the LED. What happens?

Remove one of the other LEDs. What happens?

Circuits can be series circuits, parallel circuits, or a combination of the two. What type of circuit do you think this is?

As with the simple circuit, use the Fun Dough to trace out the wires, connect the battery and bridge the gaps with LEDs as shown in the circuit diagram below. Make sure the long legs of the LEDs are close to the positive (+) side of the battery. (The LEDs should light up)

Take out one of the three LEDs. What happens to the other two?

Replace the LED. What happens?

Remove a second LED. What happens?

Replace the LED and then remove a third LED. What happens?

Circuits can be series circuits, parallel circuits, or a combination of the two. What type of circuit do you think this is?

As with the simple circuit, use the Fun Dough to trace out the wires, connect the battery and bridge the gaps with LEDs as shown in the circuit diagram below. Make sure the long legs of the LEDs are close to the positive (+) side of the battery. (The LEDs should light up).

Take out the LED labeled “LED 1” on the circuit diagram. What happens to the other two?

Replace the LED. What happens?

Remove LED 2. What happens?

Replace the LED and then remove LED 3. What happens?

Current flows from the positive side of the battery and through the circuit to the negative side of the battery. When there is a complete path from the positive side to the negative side, current can flow. If there isn’t, it can’t.

In circuit 1, what was the path of the current in the circuit?

Thinking about the path of the current, explain why the light went out when you touched the two Fun Dough wires together.

In circuit 2, what is the path of the current? Is there just one path or are there different paths?

In circuit 2, when you removed one LED, the other two didn’t light. Using the idea of current flowing through a complete circuit, can you explain why the other two LEDs went out?

In circuit 3, what is the path of the current? Is there just one path or are there different paths?

In circuit 3, you could remove an LED and the other ones stay lit. Again talking about current flowing through the circuit, can you say why the other two could stay lit?

In circuit 4, what is the path of the current? Is there just one path or are there different paths?

In circuit 4, even after you took out LED 1, LED 2 and 3 both stayed lit. When you took out LED 2, only LED 1 stayed lit. Can the path of the current describe why this happened?

What does it mean for something to be a conductor?

What does it mean for something to be an insulator?

Is Fun Dough an insulator or a conductor?

What does it mean for something to be a conductor?

What does it mean for something to be an insulator?

Is Fun Dough an insulator or a conductor?