Bringing Bugged and Brilliant to Life with Deann Poleon, Chibitronics, and “The Forest Mission”
We are excited to introduce a talented educator, technologist, and story-teller who combines the magic of narrative with the hands-on engagement of STEAM learning! We met Deann Poleon, a recent Pathfinders alumna, through one of our affiliates, another Pathfinders alumna, Laurie Yager. Laurie rightly suggested that Chibitronics might be a good fit for some of the learning activities featured in Deann’s new book, Bugged and Brilliant: A Journey of Design, Discovery, and Helping Friends. As a result, Deann has generously created a series of scaffolded, classroom-ready lesson plans targeted at children in grades one through five!
Deann Poleon is a K-12 technology integrator and former high school English teacher who bridges storytelling and hands-on STEAM innovation. Driven by a passion for literacy, critical thinking, and cutting-edge learning tools, Deann designs transformative educational experiences that inspire young minds. Through her new children’s book, she combines her background in language arts with interactive circuitry powered by Chibitronics, bringing stories to life and fostering creativity, collaboration, and a lifelong love for both literature and technology.
Link to Bugged and Brilliant: A Journey of Design, Discovery, and Helping Friends
As educators, we are always looking for ways to make STEM meaningful. When I wrote my children’s book, Bugged and Brilliant: A Journey of Design, Discovery, and Helping Friends, my goal was to blend storytelling with a message about kindness, problem-solving, and working together. Today, I’m thrilled to share a classroom-ready lesson, The Forest Mission Briefing, straight from the book’s additional resources.
This project transforms simple paper circuits into an interactive, narrative-driven rescue mission that challenges your students to think, create, and help others.
Lesson Plan
The Narrative: A Deep Forest Emergency
A massive storm has swept through the enchanted forest, bringing down the local Wi-Fi and cell signals. Dee the Firefly needs an elite team of tech-savvy lightning bugs to build an emergency optical communication system!
By connecting Launchpad LEDs, students flash critical, coded messages across the dark forest floor to coordinate a rescue mission.
Setting the Scene and Materials
The Scene: Students create their own forest scenes. You will need: paper, scissors, and crayons or colored pencils. You can use the coloring templates that I created.
The Circuit Base: Students create a circuit to communicate within their forest scenes. For this, they will each need: 1-3 X Chibitronics Launchpad LEDs (or Sticker LEDs), 1 X Launchpad Battery, Conductive Fabric Tape, and two binder clips.
Scaffolding the Lesson: Grade-Band Implementations
This project easily scales in complexity, making it perfect for multi-age classrooms, library makerspaces, or progressive STEM labs.
Grades 1 & 2 (Simple Circuit): Students create a continuous loop of conductive fabric tape from a battery to an LED sticker. Connecting the positive and negative leads completes the unbroken path, lighting the LED and teaching them that electricity requires a closed loop to flow.
Grades 3 & 4 (Cut & Fold Switch Circuit): Students introduce a physical switch by creating a paper flap or fold lined with conductive tape across a gap in the track. Opening the flap breaks the path (open circuit), while pressing it down closes the loop to turn on the LED, demonstrating how switches control current and allow for coded signaling.
Grade 5 (Parallel / Branch Circuit): Students build a branching circuit that powers multiple LED stickers on separate tracks from one battery. Each branch receives equal voltage independently, teaching multi-path power distribution and demonstrating that if one light fails, the others stay lit.
[Note: The following examples, created by Deann during Pathfinders, were created as early prototypes to help inform the creation of her lesson plan.]
Grades 3/4
Grade 5
Why Narrative in STEM Matters
When we anchor circuitry in a story like Bugged and Brilliant, we strip away the intimidation factor of electronics. Students aren’t just learning about polarity and engineering pathways; they are saving trapped forest friends. It shifts the entire focus of the makerspace from isolated engineering to a collaborative community goal.
Bringing Light to the Story
By integrating Chibitronics Launchpad LEDs directly into Bugged and Brilliant, the story physically comes alive as illuminated artwork on the page. Adding real light to the narrative transforms a standard reading experience into an interactive, multi-sensory adventure—bringing Dee the Firefly’s glowing world off the paper and right into students’ hands. Seeing their own custom circuitry literally light up the illustrations makes abstract concepts like electricity tangible, immediate, and deeply memorable, bridging the gap between storytelling and real-world engineering.
Bring This Project to Your Classroom!
Are you ready to inspire your students to think, create, and help others?
- Get the Book: Pick up your copy of Bugged and Brilliant on Barnes & Noble to bring Dee’s design thinking and coding adventures to your students.
- Get the Gear: Print out the lesson templates and shop Chibitronics Launchpad LEDs, Launchpad Batteries, and Conductive Fabric Tape.
Tag us on social media to show us how your student fireflies light up the dark to save the forest!
Chibitronics’ Socials:
Insta: @chibitronics