**Crozet+Clowns+Report

The Crozet Clowns Our first idea for the LED challenge was to make a Fun House pop up book, but when we tried to make that, it didn’t really look right, so we thought of making it come to life instead. Our first model of the Fun House was just going to be outside and not so much of an inside, then we decided that if we made it by rooms it would be a little more interesting. Having decided that, we made a fun house full of rooms, where each room is a unique way of showing the LED lights in disguise. An example of one of the rooms is a mirror room. We put LED lights on the back of the cardboard so when the two wires connect, they send energy to the light and then the light lights up. The light creates a really cool effect because the mirrors reflect the light and the light becomes a reflection so we saved a lot of lights. We also made a ball pit room, with eyeballs on the walls. Then we thought that it looked a little too crammed in, so we were then inspired to make two separate rooms, the eyeball room and the ballroom. Each of the rooms in our Fun House has its own theme. The Fun House contains 5 rooms, including the eyeball room, the ballroom, the mirror room, the creepy crawly room, and the random room. We decided not to use breadboards and just use button batteries, to keep it simple. You have to be careful with connecting the positive terminal of the LED light to the positive terminal of the button batteries, because you could get shocked and/or burn out the LED light. The button batteries were really cheap on Amazon and weren’t name brand. We found out that the charge did not last very long. One of the problems that we ran into during the building process was that after we actually made the rooms we had to then figure out where to put the LED lights and how to get them to be seen. We brainstormed some ideas, and tried several of them out. Once we made the rooms separate we had to figure out how to connect them to make “The Fun House.” It wasn’t as easy as just sticking them beside each other, so we thought that if we made a second floor it would be a lot more stable. When we made the second floor we did not want it on top of our other rooms, so we used building blocks and erasers to help support the second floor. After a couple of days we realized that wasn’t going to work because the blocks and erasers were not stable, so we decided to put it on a couple of boxes. They work a lot better, and our project is much more stable. The Fun House itself is long instead of the actual plan of it being tall. We used “Tec Deck” stairs to be the entrance to the second floor with cardboard as the hallways, pointing arrows in different directions to show where to go. We also made walls separating the rooms, making a better effect. We are going to film it as though there is a real person walking through our “house”. Our house is not a real human size so we are going to use the camera as a person’s point of view. The Crozet Clowns and the Edison Engineers are going to film together to show our school. We tried to make it look like an amusement park and the projects are some of the rides! When we posted our ideas on our wiki (http://cresledkids.wikispaces.com), we got really cool feedback. Here are a few! // “During the LED club I have learned a lot about lights and electricity. Before I didn't know that you had to have a way for the electricity to go in and out. I learned about resisters which slow down the flow of electricity. I also learned that the bigger the resister the` more it slows down the flow of electricity. I learned how to make an LED light up. I learned that LED stands for light emitting diode, not little electrical device.” // // “L.E.D means Light Emitting Diode not Little Electronic Devices  // // -The positive wire on the diode is the longer wire  // // -When you hook a L.E.D to a battery you put positive to positive and negative to negative  // // - A breadboard is a piece of plastic with a bunch of holes that you can put the L.E.D wires and the other wires that connect them in so that you don't have to hold them or tape them together  // // -There are coin batteries and normal batteries. Normal batteries are your typical cylinder shape batteries. They are a little too big to be able to hide behind things and sometimes you've got this battery poking out behind your project and it takes the magic away. Coin batteries are small batteries about the size of a nickel. They are pretty light so they won't flip stuff over or rip it. //  //  - The resistors have stripes on them. Well the stripes represent the quality of the resistors!” // // “So far what I learned in LED is.... you can make a simple circuit. Also that you can light up to 4 LED lights to 1 battery. A resistor is used to not stop the energy flow but use less energy. Also with a string of Christmas lights that with a wire cutter that you can take off a USB cable. Then I stripped the cable and found the 2 wires that go in and out. The side on the left was bigger than the side on the right so I connected the bigger side on the positive side of the coin battery..... the lights lit up!!!” //

Zach

During the l.e.d club I have learned a lot about lights and electricity.Before I didn't know that you had to have a way for the electricity to go in and out.I learned about resisters which slow down the flow of electricity.I learned that the bigger the resister the more it slows down the flow of electricity.I learned how to make an l.e.d light up.I learned that l.e.d stands for light emitting diode.

Teryn In L.E.D I learned about a bread board and that if you take a button battery and an L.E.D. light it will create light. So to a bread board is set up like this...........It is made into four parts and on the two sides(right and left) 5 groups of 10 and that is where you attach the positive and on the other the negative. You can not put positive to positive or negative to negative.

Zoe This all the stuff I've learned doing the L.E.D club.

 1. L.E.D means Light Emitting Diode not Little Electronic Devices  2. The positive wire on the diode is the longer wire  3. When you hook a L.E.D to a battery you put positive to positive and negative to negative  4. A breadboard is a piece of plastic with a bunch of holes that you can put the L.E.D wires and the other wires that connect them in so that you don't have to hold them or tape them together  5. There are coin batteries and normal batteries, normal batteries are your typical cylinder shape batteries, they are a little too big to be able to hide behind things and sometimes you've got this battery poking out behind your project and it takes the magic away. Coin batteries are small batteries about the size of a nickel, they are pretty light so they won't flip stuff over or rip it  6. The resistors have stripes on them, well the stripes represent the quality of the resistors

Tyler So far what I learned in LED is.... that you can make a simple circuit. Also that you can light up to 4 LED lights to 1 battery. A resistor is used to not stop the energy flow but use less energy. Also with the LED light you can not connect a positive to a positive or the battery will run out. Also with a string of Christmas lights that with a wire cutter that you can take off a USB cable. Then I striped the cable and found the 2 wires that go in and out. The side on the left was bigger than the side on the on the right so I connected the bigger side on the positive side of the coin battery..... the lights light up!!!!