Bill Bernstein

Concept 1:

Build-a-Circuit Checkers!

Ages 8-12

This children's toy illustrates how the current differs across series and parallel circuits. It combines the classic game of checkers with a new learning perspective, and encourages children to play together and exercise their curiosity.

 

The toy's parts consist of a 20"x20" electrified checkerboard with current adaptor, snap-on wire segments, 24 game pieces each containing a light bulb (12 red, 12 blue pieces), and extra pieces for making kings. Each of the squares on the game board contains a socket for plugging in a light-up checker piece.

Children set up the game and play traditional checkers. The educational fun starts when the children snap wire segments onto the board, connecting one square to the next and creating circuits of any shape they desire! The kids observe the basic properties of series and parallel circuits when the checker pieces begin reaching different levels of brightness, depending on their location. Of course, squares can be left out of the circuit too, illustrating the need for current to power a device. The toy comes with extra segments that can be connected between a game piece and a square, for making kings. A king piece will cause the light bulb to flash.

Build-a-Circuit Checkers is moderately expensive to manufacture. The game board is the most expensive item, made of injection-molded plastic with wiring inside and 64 outlets. The game and king pieces are inexpensive plastic, and the wiring and wire segments are inexpensive copper. The light bulbs will be more expensive than the cheap ones used in grammar-school science class or for Christmas decoration, because they will need to be durable for the repeated on/off of electrical current during game play.

This toy is made safe by the construction of the pieces and game board: a plastic shield on each piece, and a complementary groove in each square, prevent the child from accidentally contacting the closed circuit. It is assumed that children in the target age group are old enough to avoid sticking objects into the outlets, but a clear warning is provided on the box. The adapted voltage is low enough to prevent harm, in any case.

 

Bill Bernstein : wbernste@andrew.cmu.edu