This summer I was stoked to be a part of a programmable paper circuit workshop for educators at ISTE. Jie Qi of Chibitronics (and MIT Lifelong Kindergarten group!) asked me to assist at this workshop for educators in San Antonio.

Jie is a huge proponent of adding art to Science and Engineering concepts, and that’s why she is so passionate to develop paper circuit products that are accessible for all learners.

Plus, she knows that blending literacy concepts with art make it engaging and meaningful for learners.

During this 3 hour workshop, participants created their first simple circuit, played with pressure sensors, and programmed LEDS with Make Code ( and beginner Arduino coding). The coolest thing was that these teachers who might’ve been new to paper circuits or coding (or BOTH!) even started to tinker with coding by the end of the workshop!

The magic board in this workshop is Chibitronics new Love to Code board.  It is programmed through the audio jack and NO SOFTWARE is needed to program the board, so that makes it super AWESOME for teachers with different devices and/or teachers who can’t download software to devices.

Check out all the awesome stuff participants made during this ISTE workshop:

Participants even had time to test out the Chibiscope!

I’m hoping I can assist Jie with this workshop again because it combines my love of tinkering with circuits and the Chibi clip makes it so accessible for makers of all backgrounds.

Thanks to Patrick Ferrell, for inspiring me to write this post.  Check out one of his Chibi Clip experiments (and his other 98 ways to blink an LED):