Skip to main content

LED Fashion Show

Have you ever been to an LED fashion show? We actually just completed one in our STEAM class, and it's pretty awesome. You go into a pitch black room, with a catwalk surrounded with white lights (so that the participants can see where they're going). Then loud music comes up, and you see these bright lights moving down the runway, outlining clothing, or swords, or accessories. It looks amazing, but it's not that easy to pull off. It takes a while, and whole lot of effort.  Honestly, this project was very frustrating at times. The connection between my wires was constantly breaking and I had to start all over a couple times! But in the end, it was all worth it.

---Here's how to make your very own LED light-ups---
The first step is making a sketch or an outline of your design, including measurements for the wires you're hoping to attach onto your clothing etc. Then, you must sew or tape the wires onto their designated place on your design. Once you're finished with that step, it's time to solder!! Soldering is simple, but requires focus and eye to detail, because in order for your soldering to be successful, you must be very patient.   The first step to soldering is taking the thin strand that emerges from the top of the colored wire, and soldering it onto the short end of the Y-Cable. Then you take the thicker strand of the colored wire, and solder it onto the other end of the Y-Cable. If you wish to have multiple colored wires, it's necessary to repeat this step for each wire you use, or else they won't light up.. The key is to use very little solder. Of course, these wires could very well shock you if you touched them while your battery is running, (which is the source that powers your colored wires once you finish soldering). So, in order to avoid this, you take electric tape or a rubber tube and drape it over the exposed wires, so that they stop the flow of electricity from irritating you skin. After you've completed each and every one of these instructions, you should be all set and ready to rock the runway!!


--HHMS STEAM FASHION SHOW 2016--

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Letter to Hillary

Dear Hillary Clinton, My name is Elena, and I am 12 years old. I currently live in California, and am in the seventh grade. I have been a tremendous fan of yours since 2008 when you ran against President Obama in the Primary Election. My parents would gather the family, (then just my Mother, Father and I) and sit in front of a very old antenna TV to watch the Democratic debates and convention. I’d like to think that I, only 4 years old at the time, would speak with them intelligently about the political issues being addressed among the candidates, but it was not so. I barely understood what half your words meant, much less the importance of the event taking place on the screen. It all sounded awfully boring to four year old me, but I didn’t care. I liked to watch. Why? Because I thought you were great. Of course, I didn’t understand how great at the time, but pretty great. Great enough for me to sit at the table and draw detailed pictures of you in your orange pantsuit. ...
4 comments
Read more

Stress Among High School High-Achievers: Filmmaker Debbie Lum on "Try Harder!"

Everybody in the San Francisco Bay Area knows about Lowell High School. Founded in 1856 and the alma mater of Broadway star Carol Channing, scientist Dian Fossey, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Lowell is among California’s highest-ranked public high schools. Up until 2020, eighth graders seeking admission to this academic magnet school needed near-perfect grades and high scores on either the California-administered standardized test or the Lowell entrance exam. When I was admitted to Lowell as an eighth grader, I was ecstatic. It felt like a major achievement. In the end, however, I chose to attend a very different kind of school. My boarding school is just as selective as Lowell (the acceptance rate is in the single digits) but it has less than 250 students — tiny compared to Lowell, which has nearly 3,000. The demographics are different, too. While my school is predominantly white and wealthy (I’m part of a small cohort of Latino students on scholarship), Lowell is 59% As...
Post a Comment
Read more

Modern Day Abolitionist Nancy O'Malley

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley was recently awarded the Modern Day Abolitionist Award from San Francisco Collaborative Against Human Trafficking (SFCAHT). During a recent online video interview, she told me about her involvement in human trafficking, her career, and her advice for young change-makers. How did you first become interested in fighting human trafficking? When I was a young prosecutor in 1996, I was assigned a case that involved a 12-year old girl who had been sexually assaulted and raped by a 50-year-old man.  She started telling me her story and told me she had a 39-year-old boyfriend who took her out on the streets of Oakland and was selling her eight or 10 times in a night. When the police found her, the 50 year old man who had paid to have sex with her had raped her.  That’s when I realized she was talking about trafficking. We didn’t even have a law in California then. That’s how I first learned about it. I started get...
Post a Comment
Read more