How to make lightsabers with 8 year olds

Last week I may have had my best moment ever as a teacher, making a lightsaber with kids.

Our current unit of inquiry is looking at how energy can be used to support human progress including the use of circuits.

Which of course mean I just had to get my set of Makey Makeys out. I had a huge room of circuitry for the kids to explore but the best part was undoubtedly the lightsaber.

If you want to make one at home you will need.

4-6 wooden chopsticks
Tin foil
Masking tape
Makey Makey
A scratch account

1. Tape the wooden chopsticks together to make a long shaft. You might want to have two at the base to keep the lightsaber sturdy.

2. Cover one of the lightsabers in tin foil leaving a small handle. This will be your earth lightsaber.

3. On the other set of chopsticks, starting at the tip attach four insulated wires at different points down the lightsaber. This will be your connection point.

4. Cover each point with tin foil and wrap it around the chopstick. Use masking tape to attach the tin foil and insulate the tinfoil.

5. You can either use my scratch programme which uses the arrow keys or get the kids to programme their own using sound effects from theforce.net.

6. Attach the alligator clips to the Makey makey, plug it and go!

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