These toys were made from electronic junk supplied by local repair shops. Old video recorders, cassette players, walkmans, etc, provided motors, lights and switches.

ALWAYS make battery powered toys, mains electricity from the wall plugs is dangerous!

Most of the toys below use a similar circuit; a battery, wires, a motor and/or a light. Students have built windmills, helicopters, lighthouses, cars, boats, planes, trucks, hypnotizing machines, paragliders, co-ordination testers, a town with lighting, and a model home with alarms.

• PREDICT: Ask your students "How many different ways can a battery, a bulb and pieces of wire be connected?" "What happens if we connect a battery the other way around? What happes if we do the same things using a motor? or a LED?" ..."
• OBSERVE: How the circuit behaves with a bulb or motor or LED and compare when the battery is connected the other way around..
• EXPLAIN: What does this show us? (Seniors might like to consider different types of resistor networks and how they behave, eg, as sensors).