Gurjeet from Cranford Community College says:

There are 6 straight lines and 5 lights on each 6*5= 30 so there are 30

Eleanor sent in her solution to the rest of the problem:

I guessed that there were about 25 lights in the picture. When I counted them there were 28, but I think there are some that you can't see behind the metal bits. My guess was quite a good one because it was only 3 away from the real number that you can see in the picture. It looks like there are 6 rods, and if they all have the same number of lights then the total should be 30, so I think there are two more lights that are hidden. The shape in the middle is a pentagon, but one of the rods doesn't fit in with the rest.

Thank you Eleanor and Gurjeet!