Wiring a Light for STEM Education

Eli was inspired to learn more about electricity while watching and helping with the cabin construction.  So he decided to take Electricity I in 4-H this year.  This week he completed his first electricity project.  He is so excited to have it completed! (I’m excited too because not only is he learning but he has a project completed and the county fair is still five months away.)

He started by attaching the switch box and light box to the board.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThen he ran a wire that will plug into an outlet and provide the power to the light switch. Next he ran a line from the light switch to the light. He stripped the ends of the wires to prepare them for attaching to the light switch and the light.  He also used a pair of needle nose pliers to make the “loop” that would wrap around the screws.

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On the light, Eli attached the white coated wire to the silver screw (the neutral wire) and the black coated wire (the power) to the gold screw.  The light doesn’t have a ground screw so the ground wire is just folded into the box.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe light switch has two gold screws, the power coming into the switch and the power going to the light.  He attached the black wire that comes from the outlet to one of the gold screws and he attached the black wire that goes to the light on the other gold screw.  (It doesn’t matter which of the gold screws the power coming into/going out is attached to.) The ground wire is attached to the green screw on the light switch.  The two white wires are attached to each other using a wire nut.

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He attached a plug-in to the wire coming to the light switch so that he can plug it in for the power. (Following the same wiring process: black to gold, white to silver and ground to green.)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHe was a little super excited that it worked!

How do you encourage STEM education? Do you find it easy or hard to encourage STEM?

 

Blessings,

Jennifer

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2 Comments

  1. Learning through doing the best STEM education there is – and bonus life skills as well – Love the light Eli!

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