5 Things to Know if Teaching Wiring with Electricity

While wading through teaching electricity, I learned a few hints that I wish I had known before setting out on this venture.

The following applies if you are teaching children to wire bulbs from Christmas light strands.

1.  If you strip wire, strip it a little at a time (about 2-3 cm).  This will prevent the small strands of copper from falling out from the friction.

2.  After you strip the wire, twist the exposed copper ends a little at a time to prevent the small strands of copper wire from falling out.  Then the copper wire will be stronger and easier to use.

3. If you allow students to use Christmas lights from the strand, it works best to just pull the bulb out completely and connect each end of the bulb wire (see small arrows above) to a Christmas light.  At times, you can cut the wire with the bulbs still in the wire and they worked, but more often than not, it didn’t work to cut the wire with the bulbs still in them.

4.   If you cut Christmas light wire to do wiring with Christmas lights, the thin wire will only carry about 12 volts before it overheats. I learned this from an electrician.

5.  If you use LED bulbs, be aware that one end of the LED bulb will be a positive end and one end will be negative.  This makes it more difficult to wire these type of bulbs.  This is because you don’t know if the circuit has a bad connection or if the bulb is turned around the wrong way.

Here is one of the best classroom models the kids made below.   They did one of the best wiring jobs!