I have to admit that I am a bit rubbish when it comes to science and technology, it’s something that I enjoy learning about with my kids but frankly most of the time I think I’m only a step beyond them in the knowledge stakes, maybe sometimes only half a step?! It is something that fascinates me though and I’m a great believer in learning through play so when we were offered the chance to review the Electro Dough Kit from Tech Will Save Us I was really keen to try it out. And being us of course I had to create a little challenge in the form of working out how to create a playdough Christmas tree that lights up!
The electro dough kit contains a battery pack, lights, a buzzer and wires so that you can learn how to make a circuit. As a mum of small kids I’ve always taught my children to keep well away from anything electrical so my son liked the chance that he was being given the opportunity to see how it worked, all be it in a very safe way! As my daughter is only two, and is still in the stage where she tries to eat playdough we kept her safely on the other side of the table with some felt tips while we set up our experiment. You can either use dough that you have made yourself (there’s a recipe on their site) or you can use normal shop bought playdough which is handy if, like me, you’re a bit stuck for time.
In order for the electricity to go round the circuit it needs to be all connected in some way and we really enjoyed seeing how this worked using the buzzer that’s supplied in the pack. It’s a great little hands on science kit that’s perfect for introducing kids to the concept as anything that makes a big noise is always a big hit! To make our playdough Christmas tree we simply rolled out two lines of green playdough and then made them into a tree shape with the two pieces not touching. We also made a little playdough tree trunk from our normal playdough which is always a delightful colour as my kids mix it all up within five minutes! We used a light to connect the Christmas tree at the top and then connected the wires from the battery pack into the bottom ends of the tree, making sure that we had the positive and negative ends the right way round so that a full circuit was made. Flick the switch on and ta-da! You have a playdough Christmas tree that lights up. Very cool!
We really enjoyed trying out this kit and at five years old my son really loved getting to do some ‘big kid’ science experiments too!
The DIY Electro Dough Kit is available from Tech Will Save Us and is priced at £15. All views are our own.
This is brilliant. My oldest son is really getting into scince and how things work and would absolutely love this.