(rough sawing)
(ball crashes)
Hi, I'm Deysi
from Design Squad Global.
We got an idea sent in
to the website
for a light-up soccer ball.
This way, you can practice
at any time, even in the dark.
When I first thought
about how to solve this problem,
which was to design and build
a light-up soccer ball,
I brainstormed a few ideas.
One idea I had was to stick on
glow-in-the-dark stars.
These stars are pretty cool.
I can stick them to the ball
and they lay flat,
and that way,
they don't get in the way
when the ball rolls
on the ground.
But these glow-in-the-dark stars
need to be charged.
They don't last a long time,
and they're not strong enough.
So, I need to come up
with a better solution.
Then, I tried wrapping the ball
with Christmas lights.
Now, these lights
are very bright.
But they make it impossible
for the ball to roll smoothly.
They're also fragile,
so if I kick it really hard,
lightbulbs will break.
And I also have to connect it
to an outlet, so this idea?
Won't work.
(crash)
This is my third idea.
The EL wire!
EL stands for
electroluminescent.
EL wire is a copper wire coated
with a material called phosphor.
Phosphor makes
the copper wire glow
when you run electricity
through it.
The EL wire is powered by
the batteries inside this pack.
The EL wire is pretty thin
and flexible.
I can bend, sculpt, and wrap it
around the ball easily.
The wire is nice and bright.
There are no lightbulbs
that could break.
And, because it's powered
by the battery pack,
I don't even need to plug it
into an outlet.
The ball rolls pretty smoothly
with the wire on,
but this battery pack
is a problem.
I can't just stick it
on the outside, because...
it could possibly break.
But maybe I could put
the battery pack
inside the soccer ball.
The good thing is
that this is a foam soccer ball
that I can cut in half,
install the battery pack,
fasten the two parts together,
and the ball will roll
just fine.
Now, I'm going to be using a saw
to cut my soccer ball in half.
So, make sure that,
if you use a saw,
to get an adult's permission.
(rough sawing)
Woohoo!
Look at that:
my two halves.
Okay, so, I want to make sure
that I don't cut
too big of a hole
inside my soccer ball.
I want my battery pack
to be nice and snug.
Well, look at this!
It fits beautifully.
So, I think I'm going to drill
a hole right here.
There it goes,
there it goes.
Yes!
(chuckling)
That's good,
that's pretty good.
That's good, good, good!
I should be able
to attach this here.
The only issue is that
I need to be able
to get into the battery pack
so I can change the battery
when this one dies.
I can't glue the two halves
together.
But maybe I could use Velcro.
It's strong enough to keep
the ball together.
And I can easily take it apart
so I can get to the battery pack
and change it.
This Velcro is very sticky
in the back.
This is a sticky situation.
I'm going to turn this on,
and now I'm just going to keep
threading my wire
around this half.
Sort of like sewing
the ball with lights.
Okay, here I go...
See?
(chuckling)
The good thing about EL wire is
that you can cut
the excess wire off,
the part you're not going
to be using,
and the rest of the wire
will still light up.
Lights, please!
Whoa, this is so cool!
(laughing)
Lights, please!
Now, this works great!
But, if I had
a little bit more time,
I would probably use
another battery pack
and a different color
to light up
the other half
of my soccer ball.
The only thing that
I'm not too crazy about
is the use of batteries.
Once batteries die,
you throw them away.
But wouldn't it be cool
if you somehow used the energy
from the rotating ball
to power up the lights?
That's something to think about.
Do you have other design ideas
for a light-up soccer ball?
We want to hear all about them.
Send your designs to
the Design Squad Global website.
We'd love to see
what you could come up with.
So, let's play!
Goal!
(laughing)
(humming)
