LEDs & Circuits Introduction

To begin using lights in design we first will learn about electrical circuits. A circuit is an electrical device that provides a path for electrical current to flow.

Materials Needed

• Coin cell battery CR2032 for each student
• Various colors and sizes of LEDs

Activity: Free Exploration

Give students a CR2032 coin cell battery and an LED and let them play for a bit. Have a variety of colors and sizes of LEDs for them to compare and experiment with. Sometimes blue or green LEDs won’t light up when combined with other colors; size uses more power, etc.

Challenge: See if you can make the LED light up. If you can, you have just made a circuit! How many LEDs can you light?

Use the Tell Your Story with Color activity sheet and use the LEDs to match some of the words.

Teacher note: Give designers time to figure out how to light up the LED before you tell them about the positive/negative leads. When they have made the circuit, ask what they notice and why it works one way and not the other. Let them explain in their own words before you give them the technical terms or talk about electrons flowing.

About the LED

The LED has two legs (leads):

• Longer leg = positive side (+), called the anode
• Shorter leg = negative side (−), called the cathode

See It In Action: Stricter Gun Laws

Stricter Gun Laws — MakeFashion Edu, 2019, San Marcos, CA Materials: LEDs and Coin Batteries | Designers: Aiden B., Christian & Jo’el

“On the fashion piece we have a symbol that shows a gun with a circle and a cross through it. This means that our group is against guns. The lights on the back of the jacket represent the 109 people that died each day in 2017. The red lights at the bottom of the shoes represent school shootings. In 2019, 51 people died or were injured because of school shootings. For these reasons, we are activists for stricter gun laws and we hope you agree with us.”