This week, we learned a little bit about how light switches work. To make a light switch, you need at least 1 battery, some wires, and a light bulb. The more batteries you have, the more light it will produce. So our assignment is to make 3 different creative light switches. For the switch to work, you have to have tinfoil not touching tinfoil in the beginning, and then you push or pull something, and tinfoil touches tinfoil.

First, I drew some sketches. For my first sketch, I designed a Starbucks coffee cup. When I was done, I got started building. The cup is made out of cardboard that I curved, and closed with another piece of cardboard at the bottom. I put a piece of tinfoil at the inside-bottom of the cup. Then I got a straw, and hot glued a piece of tinfoil to the bottom, as well as the middle of a cut rubber band. I glued one end of the rubber band to one side/top of the cup, and the other end to the other side/top of the cup. Here’s how it works – you attach one alligator clip to the straw tinfoil and another alligator clip to the cup tinfoil. You push the straw down, and the tinfoil on the straw, touches the tinfoil on the bottom of the cup, and the light switch lights up.

Then, I drew another sketch. I decided to do a lever/scale. I cut out a base for the lever out of cardboard. Next I cut out a triangle, so that the lever can move up and down/ side to side. Then I cut out a long oval for the lever. I hot glued some Pom poms for decoration. I taped the middle of the lever to the top of the triangle. Then, I hot glued one piece of tinfoil to one side of the lever, and another piece of tinfoil to the base of the lever, so that when you push down on the lever, the tinfoil on the lever touches the tinfoil on the base.

Lastly, I drew a sketch of an iPad. The home button has a piece of tinfoil on the bottom, and the iPad has another piece of tinfoil on it. I taped each end of a cut rubber band to the iPad, and taped the home button to that. So when you push the home button down, the tinfoil on the home button touches the tinfoil on the iPad. Next week I will decorate the iPad.