Winter Carnival Paper Circuits REMIX

[Francesca]

Continuing the discussion from Paper Circuit Photo Card Take-and Make:

I was inspired by the photocards by @Tracy and have been looking for a way to create something similar for my community. The opportunity arose when I realized that our 100th Annual Winter Carnival will be happening this February. The Carnival is hosted by our Recreation Department and every year I look for ways that the public library can offer supplemental programming as a way to connect community organizations.
I connected with our local Historical Society and they pulled a bunch of carnival photos for me from the 1920’s. I eventually pulled the 2 you’ll see below but it was wild to see how much fun people had back in the 1920’s. Giant toboggan runs, ski jumps, viewing platforms, ice castles, sled dogs running down Main Street. Those people knew how to live it up!
I’ve been looking for a way to introduce our library community to STEAM/Makerspace programming and have a feeling the local history element will provide a nice draw and make the entire concept less intimidating.
Other than that I pretty much followed PLIX’s suggestions. I am making sure to include extra paper and stickers and copper tape so people can continue to play around and invent, following the PLIX pedagogy. I also plan to make my first ever demo video to accompany the project next week. If its a success I’ll share it here.

Here’s what the take & make kit looks like so far:

I created the cards in Canva and printed them two sided (I considered using glossy photo paper or cardstock but decided it wasn’t worth the expense and regular paper is easier to work with):

To figure out how to line up the copper tape/LED guides I just copied the photo, flipped it horizontally and took it down to 50% saturation to make sure everything lined up:

So that’s everything I’ve got so far. The kits will be available for pick up beginning on February 4th until supplies run out. I’ll keep you updated and let you know how it goes.

[Tracy]

Love this! Your cards are beautiful, and I’m sure both your community partners and your patrons will love that local history connection. Thank you for explaining your trick for lining up the circuit template. I’m totally going to do this and save myself loads of time on future projects!

[Francesca]

Here are the complete kits I ended up make pre-assembly. I even added an “I Play with PLIX” button to the kits.
All 25 kits were picked up the first day they were made available at the library. They were listed as available on a first come, first serve basis.
I did make one crucial error. I forgot to ask for feedback I have no idea if the activity was a success or not. Next time I do this I’ll include a QR code for a google survey and give an incentive for sharing photos and feedback.

[michelleb]

I love your kits. I like that you recognized the follow up aspect. Sometimes I am guilty of assuming the kits are a success just because they were all picked up.

[ada]

@michelleb @Francesca

One idea that @Hope had shared was to include an email address at the bottom of a printout, and requested, in text, that parents/kids shared at least a picture of the creation. These pictures would go on the library’s social media which those same parents follow. This has gotten more success than other methods.

[michelleb]

Good idea!

[Francesca]

@michelleb and @ada Thanks so much for the encouraging words and suggestion. I was just contemplating whether or not to create a PLIX inspired take & make for this year’s winter carnival. I think I’ll go for it! Most likely beautiful symmetry, focusing on snowflakes and ice crystals.

[ada]

Awesome @Francesca ! Would love to hear how you go about it this year.

Also keep an eye on the Winter Kit Share-out! thread. We shipped out 50(!) kits last week with Beautiful Symmetry and Paper Circuits for the season. There’s bound to be some great ideas showing up soon.