Introduction: Glowing, Flying Insect

By The Maker Studio @ Science City
About: The Maker Studio is a museum makerspace at Science City in Kansas City, MO. To see more of our creations follow us on Instagram @The_Maker_Studio or @ScienceCityKC

Make a glowing insect, hung from a string and attached to a stick that you can run around with and make fly during those fun, late summer nights!

Step 1: Gather Materials

We used:

  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • Glue gun
  • String
  • Pencil (or some other stick like thing)
  • LEDs (we used 2)(find @ RadioShack or Microcenter)
  • Coin cell battery (like the one for a digital scale or hearing aid, find @ Target/CVS/etc.)
  • Clear(ish) container from the recycling/making stuff bin
  • Other objects/junk for the body
  • Other fun objects to decorate with

Step 2: Make It Glow

If you're using an LED....The long leg of the LED is the positive one, this must touch the + side of the battery, the other leg (negative) will go on the other side of the battery. Like an LED, battery sandwich where the LED legs are the bread and the battery is the jam. Go ahead, try it....it won't work the other way. That's because the electricity flows in a certain direction. We added two LEDs to our coin cell battery and taped them in place.

You could use anything that glows and fits inside your clear(ish) container.

Step 3: Make the Body

Put the LED sandwich in the clear(ish) container and glue a lid onto it, we used a plastic bottle cap. We like to have fun and learn about science while we make things @ the Maker Studio....so we made our insect's body with three distinct parts to mimic the segmented body of an actual insect. We added our string in between two of the segments so that it would have a strong connection.

Step 4: Make It FUN

Now add on any other decorative elements. We added forewings and hindwings, six legs, antenna and of course google eyes.

Step 5: Don't Forget to the Stick!

Glue the other end of the string to the stick so it can fly later.

Step 6: Watch It Glow!

Take your insect into a dark area and watch it glow! These are great for running around with during late summer nights. The LED will stay on all night, and probably for at least a few days after that.

We make awesome stuff like this every day in the Maker Studio @ Science City, Kansas City's Science Center during our walk-up workshops and our open houses. More info @ Science City's website or our Google+ Page!