MY PROJECT
Watt a House!
How I made a tiny house turn its lights on and off, with help from Gru and the Minions!
By Sebastian Ballance · Third Year, Lower Elementary
What I built
A house where I can turn on the lights!
- living room & kitchen
- bedrooms upstairs
- porch & outside lights
- a fireplace that flickers
The tricky part
How do you control SO many little lights at once?
I needed a boss to give orders… and helpers to do the heavy work.
Meet the boss: GRU
- Gru is the brain (a tiny computer)
- He gives the orders
- But he's too weak to do the heavy work himself!
Meet the workers: the Minions
Each minion turns on one part of the house.
How it works
- Gru shouts: “Turn on the outside lights!”
- That minion flips its switch
- The lights glow!
Let's try it!
Open the Minions page and click a button!
Try “Exterior lights” and “Fireplace”
(Grown-up: open gru-wiring.html for the live demo)
What's inside
- Brain, the boss (Gru)
- Chip, the minions (helpers)
- LEDs, the little lights
- Resistors, keep the lights safe
- Battery, the power
- Wires, connect it all
4 cool things I learned
- Electricity flows in a loop, like a race track
- An LED is a tiny light that only works one way, backwards it stays dark!
- A transistor is a tiny switch, a chip has billions, each smaller than a hair!
- A resistor is a seatbelt for the light so it won't burn out
THE END
Thanks for watching!
Any questions?