“Version 1” of my microworld was my MSTU 5027 project titled, “the lights don’t work.” It’s the most common job an electrician has, showing up on a worksite with the simple instruction of getting the lights back on. He has to troubleshoot where the short circuit is, and if it’s an old building, make sure the current is to code. The cardboard tiles on the right are various resistors to place on the punch out to complete the circuit. The goal is to get the amperage to the correct value using the resistors. There’s also a potentiometer on the underside that serves the same function.

I’m perfectly fine reiterating on that project. But I have another idea that might be better: using tessellation tiles. The learning objectives are still the same: polarity, electricity flow, series and parallel circuits, leading to Kirchoff’s rules. But maybe I could make tiles (battery, conductive tape/wire, resistors and LEDs) that the learner could make patterns from, that create real circuits to apply a multimeter to various places on the circuit. The game remains the same: you have to make a circuit within specified amperage tolerances, and make series and parallel circuits to answer questions about how electricity flows through them.