Contributed by Dwight Zirschky, 4/5 grade, Ewing Young Elementary School, Newberg, Oregon
If you are finding it difficult to gather enough small light bulbs to teach a unit on electricity, now is the time to put out the word to parents and friends. As Christmas approaches many people will discover that their old strings of mini lights don’t work and it is cheaper to toss them than to find the one bulb that is burned out. Ask them to give you the old strings of lights. Using scissors or wire cutters simply snip the wire half way between each bulb. You will soon have 60 to over a 100 lights with 2 inch leads. These bulbs easily light with a D cell and don’t burn out if students join several batteries in series. Be sure that you discard the plug ends where students won’t find them. A loose plug is very tempting to plug into the wall and it could be deadly.
Hurry though – LED lights are gaining in popularity and are fast replacing this older style of light strand.