Circuit Putty can be used to create tools and activities that allow kids of all ages to experiment with circuits and electronics using play dough. Using our provided unique recipe, you can create a batch of non-toxic, conductive play dough! It's simple to make and works great with all of the included accessories in this kit. Use a cookie cutter to shape out your conductive dough and then "plug" in your favorite parts to see what you can build.

Difficulty: Easy

Build Time: 10 minutes

Instructions

Recipe

• 1 cup Water
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 1/4 cup Salt
• 3 Tbsp. Cream of Tartar*
• 1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
• Food Coloring

1. Mix water, 1cup of flour, salt, cream of tartar, vegetable oil, and food coloring in a medium sized pot.
2. Cook over medium heat and stir continuously.
3. The mixture will begin to boil and start to get chunky.
4. Keep stirring the mixture until it forms a ball in the center of the pot.
5. Once a ball forms, place the ball on a lightly floured surface.
6. Slowly knead the remaining flour into the ball until you’ve reached a desired consistency.

1. Make two snakes of dough and put them side by side, but not touching.
2. Run alligator clips from a power source (4AAs or a 9V) to the dough.  Positive to one snake, and negative to the other.  Again, the two snakes are not touching.
3. Spread the legs of an LED.  Put one leg into each snake.  If it doesn't light up, flip the LED around.  (LED have a positive and a negative leg.  If they're in the wrong snake they won't turn on.)

You can use a sugar based recipe to make a non conductive dough, or an insulating dough.  We don't recommend it. We've never had great success making it and it molds over within 24 hours and is very sticky. If you want you can google search for it easily enough.

Lesson Plans

Microsoft Word Documents (.docx)
Circuit_Putty_Basics
Circuit_Putty_Project
Circuit_Putty_-_Santa_s_Workshop

PDF Files (.pdf)
Circuit_Putty_Basics
Circuit_Putty_Project
Circuit_Putty_-_Santa_s_Workshop