Flaunt your 
winter kit creations here!
The PLIX Winter Kit supports participants of the Self-Guided Mini Course. The kit contains materials for two PLIX activities: 
Paper Circuits and 
Beautiful Symmetry.
Please share your explorations, creations, and even remixes!
So glad you enjoyed the lights @Jean_Daley !! They were the perfect combination of Beautiful Symmetry, (Paper) Circuits, and winter.
Looking forward to seeing how you use the kit!
In another thread, emicole08 mentioned a project they were thinking about doing last year. Christmas STEM: Gingerbread House Paper Circuits - Teach Beside Me
I was inspired! I tried it last night, and I’ll be making up some take and make for our kids to do it with.
I’m off to make tiny curtains, now. 
That’s delightful!! So many possibilities.
We decided to do a kit out of the Beautiful Symmetry materials and a few things we added. We have not started passing it out yet. I will follow up once we do but here is a picture of the contents:
Nice takeaway kit! That’s a well-crafted compact set of open-ended materials.
Would love to see the variety of creations if they send you pictures!
This week we used the paper circuits supplies to make holiday cards! And the lights look so nice in our STEAM lab. Thank you plix!
Our Library is in a small rural town in South Mississippi. We are so happy to recieve the PLIX winter kit. We had our first Program with the kit on December 8, 2022. We decided to intergrate the circuits with ornaments. These were just small and simple circuits and the children loved to play around with different lights… Thank You! Zabrina and Shannon 
Thank you for the lights!! So pretty in our MakerSpace at Richland Library Ballentine. (I’m trying to train myself out of saying “my MakerSpace” though I’m the one that is in charge of it.)
I’ve put in a proposal to do a BeauSym program in the Spring. I plan on teaching adults about symmetry and having them create their own friezes using their new knowledge.
And if I can get the logistics worked out, I want to make light up paper flowers (maybe bouquets) during one of my Monday Morning Maker programs. I’ll post more once I have my prototypes worked out. But that’ll probably be next month - this month is half over and really busy!
And though it’s not related to what was in the box, here was this week’s Monday Morning Maker’s project: gnomes! I was pleasantly surprised that all of my participants (ages about 6 to 70!) were able to create multiple gnomes after having been instructed step-by-step on how to make their first.
Lots of inspiration here, all! I’m thinking a take-n-make kit along the lines of michelleb’s would be something I can do at my library.
The stuff in the Winter Kit has so many possibilities. On an outreach visit to a local elementary Math Night, I was thinking of taking paper towel rollers and make symmetrical prints using the geo puffy stickers in the kit, but ended up going even simpler. I printed some beautiful symmetry patterns available on Alex Berke’s book website and brought along markers.
I also brought along a laptop and loaded up the digital version of the book. This, along with kid books introducing concepts of symmetry, made it easier to talk about and demo symmetry. One of the nice things about the digital book is that it’s loaded with figures that re-draw themselves in cool new ways when you click or tap on them. Kids and parents enjoyed looking at these algorithm-produced images.
100% of everyone I spoke with said they didn’t know what symmetry was when I asked them, but within 2 minutes of showing them the visuals and letting them color, 100% said they understood what symmetry is!
@LissaMonster your space looks so fun and inviting! I love it! Light up paper flowers sound really cool and a great, unique way for paper circuits. Please share if you do get them worked out or if you want some feedback.
Those gnomes are great! They look like something you would find in a HomeGoods. Did these materials come in a kit together or did you provide them with different supplies?
That’s amazing! It must be so rewarding to see people engage and learn so quickly.
Good to know that’s a feature in the digital version of the book. Thank you for sharing, Lissette!
I do think that symmetry is inherently something that people understand–they just may not have a name for it yet.
So the fact that my program attendees “got it” right away has less to do with any ability to explain symmetry on my part and more with the fact that we’re all (?) built to appreciate symmetry.
I learned how to make them from this YouTube video: DIY GNOME ORNAMENTS! - YouTube
I had all the things I needed in our MakerSpace. Luckily, I had a customer several years ago donate a box of random winter holiday stuff, so the embellishments came from that bin. We keep felt, yarn, and beads on hand. I used the inside rings of a bunch of embroidery hoops as the stencil for cutting out the circles of felt.
Sadly, no one has sent pictures. All kits went out.
Since this post we also hosted a Teen Night where a colleague introduced paper circuits. She had two Teens. Both Teens were homeschooled and had never heard of paper circuits. They only did the basics so again no pictures to share but it was reported both Teens had a good time.
That is great to hear, @michelleb! I know some programs with teens can be tricky, but the fact that they learned something new and enjoyed it is awesome. 
Thanks for sharing!
I was planning on running a paper circuit workshop as part of an after-school program, but unfortunately we had to cut that program from our weekly lineup due to staffing constraints, so I pivoted and ran an evening paper-circuit workshop for kids and families. I had 17 attendees (about 6 family groups) and while many folks made simpler projects (which makes sense give the age of most of the participants) a few dove in and got very complex. It was an excellent program and it really served to highlight for me that there’s an interest from my community in evening family-based STEAM programming. I noticed that the parents tended to be more interested in the circuit aspect of the project while the kids loved coming up with ideas and providing the creative direction of the project. None of the projects turned out very winter themed (though there were some excellent lunar new year cards).
For my first time facilitating a workshop like this (I’m an early career librarian), I thought it went pretty well! The hardest thing for me was remembering to keep my hands off the tools. A lot of the parents were eager to hand over the project when problem solving was needed which increased the difficulty of that, but I’m excited to do more work like this in the future! Thanks PLIX for the kit!
