About Us
The Idea
Everyone loves flashing lights. We want to show teachers and pupils how easy and fun it is to construct simple electronic circuits for use in all sorts of exciting, ingenious projects - from Christmas cards and decorations, flashing badges and jewellery, flickering candles and scary Halloween masks, to cosmic posters, rainbows and coloured dolls house lighting.
We'd love to see an engineering / science club in every school, to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
We supply starter kits with 60 of our circuits and all the necessary tools, together with a day's training and support, for the subsidised cost of £250. These are available to anyone who runs or would like to start a young engineers / scientists club. There is a start-up grant of £100 available to new clubs that can be used towards one of our kits.
The Circuits
A Rainbow in your Pocket
Press the button once: red, green, blue.
Press it again: red, green, blue, faster and faster, until ... white! A lovely demonstration that white light is made up of the three primary colours.
Press it again: the beam cycles through all the colours of the rainbow. Notice how they are all made up by mixing different amounts of red, green and blue.
Press it again: the light stops at the colour you want. Can you stop it at the exact green/blue point where the beam shining on a wall looks like planet earth?
The Five Light Flasher
A twinkling circuit, perfect for lighting up Christmas cards.
Mount your picture on cardboard or plywood, drill 5mm holes, put your LEDs on wires, and push them through.
For bigger projects you can daisy-chain as many of these circuits as you need, all controlled by one switch.
The Everlasting Candle
A spookily realistic flickering electronic candle, perfect for Halloween inside a pumpkin lantern! No matches or fire to worry about, and it lasts for weeks.
As an optional extra you can add a few components and make the candle come on automatically in the dark.
Starter Kits
Full contents:
- Soldering Iron
- Tools Wallet
- Safety Glasses and Fume Extractor
- 20 Rainbow Kits
- 20 Flashing Light Kits
- 20 Candle Kits
- 200 metres wire
- A day with a STEM Ambassador - a qualified, disclosure checked engineer who will train you to build the circuits.
Start-up Grant for New Clubs
Schools starting a new engineering club can apply for £100 from the Young Engineers and Science Clubs Scotland scheme which can be used towards a starter kit if you wish.
Any Questions?
If you are interested or have any questions, please get in touch using the form on our contact page. We'd love to hear from you!
History
This project has its roots at Peebles High School Engineering Club, where pupils have been lighting up Christmas cards and red noses for close to 20 years.
Kathleen Hill, former physics teacher and club leader, and her husband Roger were inspired by the constant fun at Peebles and wanted to spread that fun to all schools.
They designed a range of simple circuit kits including the three that we currently offer.
Following successful pilots in Borders, Fife and Midlothian, the IET awarded Young Engineers & Science Clubs Scotland £5000 to distribute 20 starter kits throughout Scotland during 2010.
