Description
🐞 Make Your Own Vibrating Jitterbug!
Part of Science2Life’s SCIENCE iT! Series
Turn everyday objects into exciting science projects with Scientific Sue! This buzzing, wiggling Jitterbug activity lets children explore the science of movement and simple electrical circuits in a creative, hands-on way.
🛠 What is it?
In this fun STEAM activity, your child will build a simple electric circuit using a 5V motor and an off-centre spinning weight. Attach it to a colourful pot, do some creative decorating and buzz! – you’ve got a jittering, skittering bug that zooms across the floor or table!
With a little extra imagination, your Jitterbug can become a Drawbug – just add the felt-tip pen legs and watch it scribble wild, spinning patterns across the page!
👉 Click here to see it in action!
🧪 What Will They Learn?
- How to build a simple electrical circuit
- What happens when you add an off-centre spinning mass
- How to experiment with motion, vibration, and balance
- How creative thinking turns science into fun
🧰 What’s in the Kit?
Everything you need to make your bug jitter, skitter and draw:
- 1 x 5V motor
- 1 x motor clip
- 1 x off-centre cam wheel
- 1 x battery holder with switch
- 1 x pot with lid
- Sticky glue dots
- 3 legs
- 3 felt-tip pens
- 1 x AA battery
- 2 x googly eyes
- 4 x Colourful pipe cleaners
🎨 You’ll need: Your own art and craft materials to personalise your creation – extra pipe cleaners, pompoms, sequins, feathers… whatever brings your bug to life!
🧠 Curriculum Links
- Build a simple series electrical circuit using motors, wires, switches and batteries
- Understand how switches control current and movement
- Design and make a unique, functional vibrating product
- Explore energy transfer and forces in action
💡 Top Tips
- Place the motor inside the pot for easier decorating
- Or mount it on top to add spinning tails, noses or hats!
- Try attaching the circuit to other objects – what else can you make move?
Ready to buzz into action?
Whether you’re building a bug or creating a Drawbug masterpiece, this kit is the perfect way to mix science, engineering and creativity in one unforgettable experience.
What will your creation look like?
Click on the link above to see my creation in action! The art materials are not included – our creations are just intended to show you how easily the vibrating lid or pot can be modified.
Science2Life’s Science iT! activities and programmes
Children love to be engaged in learning, especially through interactive projects that they can really get involved and be hands on with.
Science2Life’s Science iT! activities and programmes are part of our STEAM Academy. The activities use everyday life objects, toys and knick-knacks and turns them into fun, innovative, hands-on experiences designed to encourage children to:
- discover the amazing world of science and engineering
- to perform engaging activities that show how science and engineering is at work in their everyday lives
- to foster a lifelong love of science and engineering
- to give a basic grounding in scientific concepts and scientific thinking
- to increase children’s motivation to learn and
- enhance their perception, creativity and logic.
Hands-on learning is learning by doing.
Children involved in our ‘Science iT!’ activities and programmes are introduced to various STEAM learning methods and activities. Our creative programmes involve learning activities that require active thinking and experimenting to find out how things work. We all know how curious children are about the world around them and how they love using the word ‘why?’
The aim of our activities is to provide optimal learning opportunities that strategically help children grasp mathematics, engineering and science concepts.
The inclusion of the arts component into STEM makes it more fun to learn, and more approachable to children.
Art education allows children to learn things in a more open-ended way and make them applicable to real life.
Links to the curriculum
All of Science2Life activities can be used to entertain children – however they have been created with the curriculum in mind, so are perfect activities to generate mesmerizing examples of the topics they can be used to explore.
All of our Science iT! activities can up scaled-up to be used in workshops within the classroom, for festival and birthday celebrations, which provide opportunities for children to collaborate on initiatives, explorations and creations.
The idea behind our Science iT! activities is to ignite children’s natural innate curiosity about the world around them (and the items in it) and to channel their enthusiasm for scientific discovery as early as possible.
Currently Science2Life have the following Science iT! activities:
- The Magical EVANESCO Spell
- The Magical AMORTENTIA Spell
- The Super Bouncing Bubble Kit
- Make your own Fossil Kit
- Colour Changing Bracelet Kit
- Pneumatic Monsters Activity
- Creative Circuits
- The Magical Wandarama
- Gone Fishing
- The Jitter Bug
All of the above can be upscaled to become workshops. Interested? Give us a call!
Scientificsue@science2life.com
+447970884728
Note: All of Science2Life’s STEAM ACADEMY shows and workshops are designed to not only motivate and fire the spirit of discovery within your children but also ignite curiosity in their minds.
For more information on our shows visit our website: https://www.science2life.com
