CD case illuminART - TEACHER guide

You will need:

• CD case

• Coloured permanent markers or felt pens

• Insulated wire (35-45cm)

• 3V coin battery e.g. CR2032

• White LED

• Cellotape

• Soft foam packaging

• Copper or metal tape, or tin foil

UPDATE: we have several packs available for purchase - $30 for 10, $60 for 20 (plus shipping costs). Contact us to buy.

1. Check the LED and battery work

Hand out LEDs & coin batteries to students. The LED legs should straddle the battery. The longest leg (anode) should be touching the smooth side with the + sign (positive), and the shorter leg (cathode) touching the bumpy side (negative). If it’s not working, see if students can problem-solve their way to success.

Questions:

Why does this work? What’s going on? What does a battery do? What are electrons? How does the LED make light? When were LEDs invented? Where might we find LEDs in everyday life?  

2. Make a conductivity tester

Demonstrate how to test for conductivity, then give students ~5 mins to go around the room and test which materials electrons can race through (conductors) and which ones slow them down (insulators)!

Bring them back and discuss what they noticed. Was there anything which they thought would conduct electricity but didn’t?

3. Discuss CD cases & tech waste

Discuss CD cases and the change in stored music/video/data from physical media to digital files & streamed media: 

• Who knows what this is? (CD case)

• What’s a CD? 

• Who’s got them at home? 

• Who uses them at home?

With more music being played via digital files & streaming, CDs and their cases are no longer needed/wanted. This is an unfortunate side-effect of changing technology. These items are made out of plastic, with no thought to end-of-life recycling or re-use, and that’s not good. Encourage students to design with end-of-life in mind. This is a good time to review all the Rs of waste minimisation. 

One of the Rs is Re-purposing - talk about what we’re going to make, and bring out a demo if you have one. 

4. Getting creative with CD cases

There are a couple of options here:

1. Draw on white paper (recommended, as students can change out their drawing, and maximises reusability) and insert into the widest side 

2. Draw directly onto the plastic (inside of widest side) using coloured permanent markers, and cover with white paper to diffuse the light.

3. Use black paper to black out parts of the artwork.

If you have the resources for all, discuss the pros and cons of drawing onto paper vs plastic, and let students choose.

• Hand out CD cases and get students to take out the middle bit which holds the CD. 

• Taking out the plastic middle bit which holds the CD can be tricky - I find if I can get a finger under the middle of the tray, it levers off with minimal effort.

• If drawing on paper, students should trace around the case, create their drawing inside the rectangle, then cut it out and insert into the case.

• If drawing directly onto the inside of the case, any writing will appear backwards.

Decide whether students will draw something that’s important to them, something that someone they know might like (to give as a gift), something related to your class inquiry, or it could be part of a mosaic with a friend or the whole class. Students should decide whether their drawing should be portrait or landscape.

5. Add your conductivity tester

Place your battery+LED on the smallest side of the case, so that the LED is in the centre of that side. Tape down the battery, then thread the wire through a side-hole then back through the other side-hole.

Which holes students should use depends on whether the drawing is portrait or landscape.

Students will often run into connectivity issues with the LED legs or wires not connecting. This is a great time to talk about debugging!

7. Test out your artwork in the dark! 

Using the wire as a handle, hold it up against a wall - it should create a nice glow around it!

8. Create a switch (optional)

This is the hardest part of the activity.