My plush toy, “How does the Flower Drink Water” is designed for young curious minds who have just started learning about our environment and ecosystem. The placement of lights in this toy highlights the roots and the stem, instead of the flower itself to bring attention to the xylem and flow of water.
When we learn how to draw a flower as kids, we almost always ignore the roots, the main source of nutrition. As a recent plant mom, I learnt after many avoidable plant deaths, the importance of understanding the root system and how it drastically affects the health of the plant.
Materials and Parts used
- Three Chiffon Fabrics
- Inside Fluff
- Thread and Needle
- Battery Pack
- Red and Green LEDs
- Resistors
- Soldering Iron
- Cardboard
- Electrical Heating Tubes
- Electrical Tape
For me the project can be divided into two parts, therapeutic sewing and stressful soldering. It was a pretty simple circuit to prepare but I struggled with assembling the LEDs, facing away from each other and placed at the joint of stem and roots. Finally when I had managed to secure the circuit within the plush toy and took it to the photo studio, one of the soldering came off. I successfully reassembled but then something else started malfunctioning. Hence, the final shots do not have the LEDs lit up.
Circuit Diagram
If I had more time, I would have
- Soldered better
- Changed the positioning of the green LED
- Hid the battery pack in the leaf
- Coded the LEDs on the Arduino to light up one after the other, starting from the roots to the bottom of the flower
