Circuit Quiz Game

Time: 30-60 minutes

Materials:

Each student will need:

  • 1 LED
  • 1 battery that can light the LED, such as button cells or AA/AAA holders
  • at least 8 paper clips
  • wire or copper tape; if using wire, can be pre-stripped to save time

Examining the nametags

Circuit Quiz Game: Simple project to teach kids about circuitry by Ben Wheeler MAKE Magazine vol. 05 p. 129 2005

Arthur C. Clarke’s third law states that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Clarke’s law could use a corollary: it doesn’t take much to be advanced enough to seem mystical. In fact, advanced tech doesn’t impress today’s kids, who are used to every teddy bear and softball being Turing-complete. To dazzle them you need older technologies like circuitry, which feel magical by their very simplicity.

Here is a simple project to introduce kids to circuitry. It is a quiz game, where a light bulb signals that the correct answer has been selected. The circuit itself is very simple, but with enough different sections that it’s surprising and satisfying to see it work. The questions can be quickly swapped in and out and rearranged, making for fast competition, impromptu topics and ridiculing siblings.

Matching questions and answers are attached to a board by paper clips, which are connected by hidden wires. A light on the board and a battery behind it are hooked up to two wires that dangle on the front of the board. By touching one wire to a question and the other to its matching answer, the circuit completes across the hidden wire behind the board and the bulb lights.

Circuitry projects are also a great opportunity to teach a child circuit diagrams and show how the path of electricity maps from symbols to reality.

This circuit diagram isn’t necessary to build the actual quiz circuit, but once finished it is useful to refer back and see which of the diagram’s cryptic symbols have become clear.

All of the circuit components are available at Radio Shack stores or radioshack.com. A few local hardware stores still carry such things, but nowadays even Home Depot doesn’t stock them.

You only need a few special materials.

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: 6-volt light bulb (Radio Shack catalog #272-1128) light bulb base with screw terminals (Radio Shack catalog #272-357) 6-volt lantern battery (Radio Shack catalog #23-016) wire spool: 20-gauge, insulated (Radio Shack catalog #278-1225) duct tape total cost: $15

Making the base to support the quiz as it stands up, and house the battery

  1. Make the board

Use two large pieces of cardboard, one for the quiz board and one for its stand. To form the stand, cut out two identical trapezoids, about 6” on the top and 9” on the bottom, with sloping sides. Tape them together along one side and to the bottom of the quiz board to form a truncated pyramid.

Wiring the light. Note that this shows the BACK of the board.

  1. Install the light

Cut a small circle from the quiz board to hold the light bulb base. Also cut two amall slits on either side of the circle. Attach two wires to the light base (you’ll have to strip the insulation from the ends of all the wires you use). Send one wire through a slit to the front of the quiz. Screw in a bulb and fit the base into the circular hole.

  1. Install the battery

Put the battery inside the quiz stand. Attach the second wire from the bulb to the battery’s negative terminal. Connect a long wire from the positive terminal through the other slit to the front of the quiz.

Wiring setup. For clarity, only one set of question-answer pairs is shown here.

  1. Wire the answers

Make each question-answer wire by wrapping both ends of a wire around paper clips (make sure the connections are snug). Attach the clips randomly on alternate sides of the back of the quiz board.

  1. Label the quiz

Make paper labels for the quiz questions and answers and place them under corresponding paper clips.

The finished product in action

1. Plug in the battery

Find the battery plug and plug in the 9 volt battery.

Notice that this doesn't really DO anything -- it's just a convenient way to attach wires to the battery. You could do this just as well by just taping wires to the battery! </div>

2. Try out the light

Screw the light bulb into a light bulb base.

Try touching the wires from the battery to the screws on the light bulb base. Can you get the bulb to light?

Try touching the wires one at a time. Notice that the bulb only lights when BOTH wires are firmly touching. That's because electricity must move in a complete circle, from one part of the battery, all the way through the wires and bulb, and back into the other part of the battery.. </div>

3. Attach the light

Now screw one of the battery wires into one of the bulb base screws.

You might have to try this a few ways to get the wire to be firmly connected. If it's loose, it won't work. </div>

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4. Add a wire

Now cut yourself a new wire, about 10 inches long.

Use the wire stripper to strip away the plastic coating from both ends of the wire. You want about 1/2 inch of wire exposed.

Screw the exposed metal part of the wire into the other screw on the bulb base. </div>

5. Make sure it still lights up

Now touch the two wires together: the wire from the battery that's not attached to anything, and the wire from the bulb base.

Can you get it to light up? If not, try to find the problem by checking each connection along the way. </div>

6. Write the Quiz

Create matching questions and answers about whatever you want. Vocab words. State capitals. Your favorite things. Your friends' secret code words. Go crazy.

7. Clip questions and answers to the board

Put questions on the left side of the board, and answers on the right.

Mix up the positions so it's not obvious which answer goes with which question!

Use paper clips to hold them in place. </div>

8. Wire questions to answers, secretly

Cut and strip one wire for each question.

Make sure they are wide enough to reach across the board diagonally from one corner to the other.

In back of the board, twist wire ends onto the paper clips, so that each question is attached by wire to each answer. </div>

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9. Take the quiz!

To try the quiz, touch the loose wire from the battery to the paper clip on a question, and touch the loose wire from the light bulb base to the paper clip on an answer.

Does it work? Do any of them work? If not, try going back and touching the wires together directly to see where the problem is.

Do all of the questions and answers work? Often there's a loose connection on a few of the paper clips, or a wiring mistake somewhere. Nothing works perfectly the first time! </div>

10. Give the quiz

Every creation seems different when shown to someone who didn't create it.

Ask friends, classmates, or acquaintances to take the quiz.

Can they figure it out without an explanation?

Which explanations work best? Do you need to show people visually, or can a verbal description work?

Are people interested in how it works? Or only in the end result of the experience?

Did people perform like you expected on the quiz? Was it too hard? Easy? Boring? Confusing? Offensive?

Find ways to change your questions and try new ones out. </div>

What's next?

This quiz game is just the beginning.

What about questions that have multiple correct answers?

Can you wire up the buzzer instead of the light? What does this feel like to someone taking the quiz?

How can you use the on/off switch?

Can you install the battery and light in the board or in a box so that the quiz looks self-contained?

What kinds of questions and answers would work well for this type of quiz? Can you make a quiz that's outrageous? That's funny? That's impossible? That's entirely a matter of opinion? </div>