A few days ago I told you about CircuitScribe.  The main CircuitScribe kits come in three sizes: Basic, Maker, and Ultimate.  (There are also a few larger kits: the Developer kit and a couple of classroom kits.)   This newest option, though, makes a great stocking stuffer, starter kit, or maybe even an option for an Operation Christmas Child shoebox.  The CircuitScribe Mini is a draw-your-own-circuit kit that’s about the same size as a deck of cards.

Like the original CircuitScribe kit, this uses conductive silver ink as a means for the user to draw circuits.  Components are then magnetically attached.  The Mini kit contains all the critical elements you need to create a very basic circuit.

I really appreciate that these kits include instructions, so even circuitry newbies like me can figure out what we’re doing.  (Although these are so well-designed, you just about don’t need the instructions.)

While Sophia was working with the main kit, Livia and I did a few extra experiments with the Mini kit.  The Mini kit, like the larger kits, includes a stencil to make it easy to draw “pads” spaced the right distance apart for the components (although the one in the larger kits is a nice plastic, and this one is just heavy card, so be gentle with it).

I drew the circles, and then let Livia color them in.  There are adequate components here to construct a conductivity tester like we did with the large kit.

Since we’d drawn this circuit on extra paper, rather than directly in the book, we were able (without messing anything up) to also test the conductivity of water.  We did this by using a pipette to drop water into the gap in the circuit.

This little kit also comes with a tiny steel sheet (although this, too, is not quite as sturdy as the one in the larger kit).

The steel sheet goes behind the paper, and then the components stick onto the pads you’ve drawn, like so:

(Our blue piece here needs to be shifted a tad.  It’s a little “off.”)

For being so small, this kit is really quite flexible, and we had a great time with it, as we did with the original kit.  It’s an affordable introduction for kids who might not be too sure yet what they think about this type of science.  But the components are all interchangeable with all the other kits.

Remember that through November 21st you can get 15% off of anything at CircuitScribe.com with the coupon code TITUS15.