Topic: Girls Engineering
Project: Light up doll houses
Academic Area/Skills: Electrical Circuitry, design, operation of power tools
Materials: Doll house kit for each student, hot glue gun to adhere house together, power drill, drill bits, string holiday lights, 3AAA (or stronger) battery power pack (this will light up about 4 lights, or 8 very dim lights), extra metal wire, electrical tape, extra cardboard, paints/paint brushes, scraps for students to design the inside of their house.
*Checking crafting stores for sample material books are helpful in getting free patterned materials for projects like this
In Girls Engineering, an after-school program for girls in grades 3-5 we made high-tech doll houses. First, the girls constructed the doll houses that came as a kit. They glued the pieces together and crafted furniture for inside. They painted the exterior, and glued material on the inside floors. The girls loved expressing their creativity and imagination with decorating.
The following week, we took out the power tools! The girls were taught how to use a power drill and made holes throughout their houses where they wanted to install lights. Next, they used holiday strand lights and rewired them so they would stretch the proper length needed to light up the whole house. After this, they wired the lights to a battery pack (make sure it does NOT have batteries yet). Lastly, girls used electrical tape to seal everything. Once everything was finished I checked all the connections for safety, we placed batteries in, and tested them out!
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