How to make a DIY steady hand game

A steady hand game is a brilliant mini electricity or design project and great for working on hand-eye coordination too!

I made a reindeer themed game just before Christmas, but you can twist the copper wire into any shape you want.

If this isn’t quite what you’re looking for I have lots more simple electricity projects for kids.

You’ll need

Insulating tape

Tape

Shoebox lid or other shallow box or cardboard tray.

Copper wire

Battery holder pack with leads – ours used 2 AA batteries

Mini light bulb and bulb holder

Crocodile clip leads

3V round buzzer

Wire cutters

I buy my electricity project items from somewhere like Maplin in the UK.

How to make a steady hand game

Carefully cut a 20-30 cm strip of copper wire and bend it into a shape. If the wire has an insulating coating, you will either need to scrape this off ( ask an adult to help ), or I covered mine in copper tape.

Push one end of the copper wire through the shoebox lid and tape it in place. This forms the main part of the steady hand game.

Cut a 10cm strip of copper wire and create a loop. Attach a crocodile clip and wire to the end. Wrap some insulating tape around the end to make a handle. This will be what you try to move around the main shape without letting the two pieces touch.

Set the inside of the shoebox up like the image below.

The top of the steady hand game should look like this. Ignore the LED light; we will add that to the circuit later.

When the copper loop touches the copper shape, the buzzer should make a noise. This is because the two pieces touching completes the circuit.

Quick circuit refresher

Electric current is the flow of charge around a circuit. Current only flows is the circuit is complete. This is why the buzzer only make a noise when the copper wire loop touches the copper wire shape in the steady hand game. It is only when the two touch that the circuit is complete!

A battery acts like a pump, pushing the electric charge around the circuit. The force is called voltage. The higher the voltage the more current flows.

Last Updated on January 11, 2023 by Emma Vanstone