by Svara Jayasinghe
This month in our Tinker Crate we found out that we were making paper circuits. I have never done anything like this before so I found it a little challenging. My dad helped me with some of the steps I had trouble with but I did several steps on my own. Even when my dad helped he just helped me with the instructions and I actually did all the work! The project was to make lanterns with different colored LED lights. My dad said that LED stands for ‘Light Emitting Diode”. I really don’t know what a diode is but I am sure I will learn about these later. First I had to make the base that help the LED light in place. We used copper tape to make the circuit and connect the LED to the battery. We also had to use a resistor to make the LED light up.
After I made the base I made the lamp shades to complete the lanterns. The crate had material to make a flower, a pyramid, or a cylinder lantern. I ended up making all three lanterns. The crate also comes with different colored LED lights so that you can try out many different versions of the lantern.
This month’s Tinker Crate was kind of hard for me but I still enjoyed it, and I know my sisters did too. Before this I had never played with LED lights, or resistors, and making the lanterns gave me a chance to know how these worked. I really enjoyed the project and I learned new things.