Newtown Middle School eighth graders Quinn McAndrew and Kyle Griffin welcomed a group of local boys, ages 9 and older, to the C.H. Booth Library's Meeting Room on Thursday, January 28, for the first meeting of a seven-week littleBits workshop.

Kyle said the group was there to learn "what circuits are, what these littleBits are, and how we use them in our lives."

Participants in the program will learn how to use the electronic building blocks to create a variety of inventions, from a remote control car to a smart home device, according to the library's description of the program. By the first meeting, the program was filled with registered participants.

Kyle began by describing how the littleBits snap together to form a circuit.

"We're fortunate to have all these pieces here at the library," he added.

The eighth graders shared a video of different creations made using littleBits before demonstrating some of their own designs, including a video game modeled after a game called Flappy Bird. To move the main bird character around objects on the screen, the boys were asked to touch littleBits pieces together to send the signal to the computer.

"I have a question," one program participant said after watching the video and seeing some of the demonstrations. "When do we start building with them?"

For students who attend Newtown Public Schools, Quinn said they can look forward to attending the middle school to participate in the school's technology education class taught by teacher Don Ramsey, where he said they will learn more about circuits.

Until then, Quinn said, "This class is a great way to learn more about electricity."

Kyle and Quinn then described how the different littleBits are colored to indicate different parts of a design.

"There you go, you have a basic circuit," said Quinn after piecing a few objects together.

Kyle and Quinn are donating their time to oversee the program, and before the ten participants left for the day they separated to work at different tables to learn and build more with the littleBits.