What are some of the parts of a basic light bulb circuit?

Question

We are doing a project for school and we need some materials to make a basic light bulb circuit we already have wire, light, bulbsocket and batery and cell

Answer 1

A switch would be nice.  get one from rad shack with 2 terminals on it.   then you can control when the light goes on and off, just like many houses have.

Answer 2

You've got everything you need to make a lighting circuit but as hot rod says switches would be nice....

You're not using large voltages/current so simple "knife" switches should be OK (DON'T use them for mains, you'll end up zapping yourself!) When the switch is on, a "knife" of metal is pressed and held against a contact, to allow electricity to flow. At it's most basic it'll be a SPST switch.

Shouldn't be two difficult to figure out how to make a SPDT knife switch which would allow you to "show off" a little and allow two switches to control a single lamp (as per those in corridors,where you can turn the lamp on either end, when you leave, you turn it off again at either end)

Figure out how to make (perhaps better to obtain?) a DPDT switch and you can really show off, and use 3 or more switches to control a single light.

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An SPST  "Knife switch" need be little more than a lever,with a wire on the "free" end, which can make a half decent temporary electrical contact with a "pad" when it's at the correct angle. Have two contact areas to and slide the lever side to side to contact those areas and you have a SPDT switch.  Refinements would be having better contacts and/or some kind of toggle/cams to "lock" the switch in position, and force it to be in one position or the other. Have two SPDT switches with a bar making them move together and you have DPDT/crossover switch. Alternatively have the lever pass through the pivot, and use that side to form a second SPDT switch