Circuits are a part of our daily lives, from turning on the light switch, operating our laptops or a microwave, few know how a circuit works or how to build one.

The Palouse Discovery Science Center (PDSC) is dedicating one of their Family Science Saturdays to circuit education. The event encourages children first through fifth grade to learn how circuits work and affect our lives, said the Education Director at the PDSC, Tiffany Sheely.

“Circuits surround all of us all the time—they’re in the walls, our phones, they’re everywhere,” Sheely said. “It’s really important to get kids at this age excited about (technology).”

Similar teaching strategies have been used in PDSC’s outreach program in schools, libraries and other places that ask for a presentation, but hosting a Paper Circuits Science Saturday reaches more people and allows for a larger variety of attendees, Sheely said.

While there, patrons will first learn what a circuit is and the difference between open and closed circuits before they get to make their own, Sheely said. The circuits will be built with paper, copper tape and LED lights.

To demonstrate the difference between an open and closed circuit, the LED light comes into play. The light only illuminates for a closed circuit but not the open, Sheely said. This is one thing that the patrons will be able to experience firsthand and see for themselves.

“Our goal is to provide kids with a better understanding,” Sheely said. “Not only of how their computers or electronics work, but how to build things and get them excited about building things.”

Learning how to build something can be inspiring to children, she said. The Palouse Discovery Science Center wants to give all children the opportunity and space to create and experience technology interactively.

As an educational facility, the Palouse Discovery Science Center tailors each of their events to the audience. Whether you’re sixty years old or six, if you attend the Paper Circuits event, you will leave knowing more than you did before, Sheely said.

The Paper Circuits event will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Saturday at the Palouse Discovery Science Center in Pullman. Tickets are $5 for children, $6 for seniors and $7.50 for adults. The first eighty attendees get to keep their homemade circuit boards.

Reporting by Madison Jackson