PLIX Interns: Reflections on facilitating Paper Circuits

On Wed Jan 22nd, 2025, we (Daphne and Kailey) helped run the Paper Circuits activity at the West Branch of the Somerville Public Library! This was our first time facilitating a program with PLIX. We had an amazing experience and learned a lot along the way! Here are some thoughts we wanted to share about our experience:

Ages: 7 and up!

Attendees: 9 learners

Kailey’s reflections

Things that went well:

Overall the program ran very smoothly. The kids were generally very excited about their projects. I noticed that the younger kids tended to be more excited about the creative aspects of the project like making the LED be the belt buckle of a pink monster. The older kids tended to be more interested in the technical parts. What is the best way to attach the battery so it isn’t blocking the rest of the project? How should I lay out the copper tape? How do I fix my circuit not working?

The kids also did a great job organically embracing peer learning. They’d often explain what they made to one another - repeating how the circuit worked in the process. Explaining what you’ve learned to others can often be helpful in making sure you really understand what’s going on. They would also work together to solve problems if their circuit wasn’t working or they were stuck on a creative aspect of the project and needed a new idea. This collaboration taught them to work with peers on challenging problems that may be harder to solve alone.

Some thoughts on facilitating this project in the future:

Paper Circuits can be adapted to a wide variety of ages with some minor changes. We had a larger spectrum of ages at this event than we were initially planning for. There were several younger kids. The youngest ones were seven. The oldest twelve. Kids on the older end of that age range might be familiar with basic circuit concepts already depending on their previous exposure in school.

One way to help adapt the activity to different kids as needed is by tailoring the language you are using. If some are already familiar with the circuit concepts and vocabulary being used, you can try introducing new words and ideas. For example, I had one discussion with a twelve year old about their circuit shorting and why that was happening. For younger kids, you can minimize the use of complicated words that they might not be familiar with. Just stick to things like the “plus” side and the “minus” side (words more familiar to a younger audience than positive and negative) and explain how things need to be connected together in a loop to let the electricity flow through.

Another super important thing was focusing on keeping a hands-off approach. It’s better to let the kids figure out on their own through experimentation and trying different things to see what does or doesn’t work. A small thing I noticed related to this is that the connection between the copper tape and the LED can be tricky to get right. This can be a bit frustrating and misleading because even if the circuit is laid out correctly, it still doesn’t work. Some solutions are adding more copper tape to prevent the legs from wiggling. Pressing down hard on each leg of the LED of your fingers can also be helpful.

Finally, encourage kids to be creative! Sometimes they think they should copy the example circuit instead of coming up with their own ideas. This can be a good start if they are overwhelmed, but lots of unique challenges to solve pop up when trying to make something unique. Personalizing the project can also make working on it more exciting!

A memorable moment:

I was sitting with a pair of middle school kids working together to create their project. They worked very independently from the facilitators and made decisions together about both the creative and technical aspects of the project, as they had had some exposure to circuits before in school. When they ran into a problem with their circuit not working, they experimented with changing different things to figure out on their own what was happening. They tried switching which way the battery was facing, swapping around the LED, and moving the copper tape.

After they had fixed it by rearranging the copper tape, I talked to them briefly about why it hadn’t been working. (They had been shorting the circuit with how the copper tape was laid out, so none of the electricity was reaching the LED.) There was this “Aha!” moment when the hands-on experimentation they had done and how that fit in with the explanation of why that had happened from a science perspective.

It was nice to see how a hands-off approach worked in practice. While I was tempted to jump in on several occasions to help, they understood a lot better why their circuit wasn’t working when they figured it out themselves. They repeated the explanation back to me after as well. The concept they had learned, even if it was a small one, clearly had stuck with them in a way it probably wouldn’t have if I had jumped in earlier.

Daphne’s Reflections

During our first Paper Circuits program at the Somerville Public Library, we planned to work with children around 10-12 years old, but we left the activity open to anyone interested and ended up with a wide age range. I found myself working with two seven year-old girls, focusing on using approachable and simple language to explain the necessary science concepts. Fortunately, they quickly started grasping the concepts and getting excited about creating their own projects with LEDs!

A memorable moment:

I first taught Evie how to tell which side of an LED was positive and connect it to a battery, and almost immediately she came up with a plan to make a monster with a light-up nose! She enjoyed talking about her ideas with me such as giving the monster a pair of pants and using copper tape to mark where she was going to place googly eyes. When her friend joined us a bit later, Evie immediately jumped into explaining the project, repeating what I had told her. I found it gratifying and exciting to hear how well Evie was able to articulate the concepts to her friend!

While sitting with Evie and Shirley, I practiced some of the facilitation techniques we learned. I focused on not touching any of their tools, but letting them make adjustments until they figured out what was wrong. I offered hints and suggestions, but let the girls really explore and use their imaginations. In the end, Evie created a little monster with a red light-up nose and Shirley created a house with an illuminated front door.

What’s next?

Next time, I hope to expand our reach and work with even more students! If we run this program again, I’d like to reach out to the local schools with flyers and post promotional material online.