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INVITATION How can we give students a meaningful context in which to learn basic principles of electricity? How can we provide opportunities for creative expression of scientific ideas? How can we inspire curiosity about science by offering chances for construction of working virtual devices? |
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TASKS Students learn about the principles of electricity and electric circuits from a multimedia source, apply their knowledge by solving electrical circuit problems on a virtual circuit board, exercise creative initiative by constructing their own virtual circuits, and describe a circuit of their own making by crafting a story told from the point of view of an electron in the circuit. |
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TOOLS Computers. AppleWorks; What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?; Zap! World Book Encyclopedia (optional). |
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INTERACTIONS Students begin the project working in pairs, and then work either individually or in pairs (depending on the number of available computers and CDs) to build their own circuits in the ElectroLoft in Zap!, and write stories based on a selected circuit. At the end of the project, students pair up to read each others' stories. Throughout the project, the teacher facilitates discussion, provides general guidance, and offers technical assistance. |
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<STANDARDS To identify the curriculum standards for your state that correlate to this student project, select the state in the popup menu below and then click the Go button. View Detailed Standards in |
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SITUATIONS Students work in the classroom or another location where computers are available. Each phase of the project will take one to several hours, which may be compressed into one or two days, or spread over four days. |
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ASSESSMENT The teacher uses a rubric to assess students' printed circuits based on what they show about students' understanding of electrical principles and their creative initiative. The teacher uses another rubric to assess students' stories on the basis of their creativity and clarity and how well they describe the circuit and its components through analogical means. Teachers can place copies of students' printed circuits and stories in students' portfolios. |
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Electrical circuits are a part of almost every appliance and gadget, from flashlights to computers. Normally, we just plug these devices in (or put in batteries) and think nothing of what the circuits are doing. But the basic principles behind every circuit are actually easy to learn. In this project, students explore electrical principles, apply what they learn in the construction of virtual electric circuits, and then write and tell stories about their circuits from the point of view of electrons traveling in them. |
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Phase 1: Discovering electricity Invite pairs of students to read or watch the story about Ben Franklin's experiments with electricity, as presented in the middle row of the cube in What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? Then, as a class, discuss what students know about electricity. What is it? How can the same energy that makes a lightning bolt be used in a flashlight and be stored in a battery? Next, have the same student pairs go to the "Electricity" section of the Sci-Clopedia in Zap! and read the first four topics in order (from "Electricity Introduction: What Is It?" to "Lightning"). When they are done, ask students to write down what they just learned about electricity. How many of these basic facts about electricity were unknown to Ben Franklin? |
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Phase 2: Learning about circuits Student pairs can now complete their exploration of the electricity topics in the Sci-Clopedia. These topics introduce the basic concepts behind electric circuits and the components that make them up. Throughout, electrons are compared to automobiles and circuits to highways, a metaphor that students can use in Phase 4. Let students know that once they have reached the end of the "switches" topics, they can go to the ElectroLoft in Zap! to begin hands-on electrical circuit problem-solving. Surge presents a series of problems dealing with progressively more difficult concepts, and students get to modify the circuits to make them work the right way. |
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Phase 3: Creating circuits Now turn students loose in the Explore Mode of the ElectroLoft. Students can use the "Using the Explore Mode in Zap!" Step-by-Step Card for assistance. Encourage them, working individually or in pairs, to create whatever circuits they like from the parts available in the tube. Here are some ideas:
Students should save and/or print every circuit they create that works in the intended way, for possible use in Phase 4. Encourage students to show their circuits to each other. |
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Phase 4: Telling circuit stories The students next task is to make up a story about an electric circuit, told from the point of view of an electron moving through the circuit. Help them recall the way that circuits are described in the Sci-Clopedia, with wires being likened to highways, batteries to garages, and switches to traffic lights. Suggest that they use this kind of comparison in their stories, and describe one or more trips around a circuit that they have built. Let students know they can be as creative as they like, but encourage them to remain faithful to the circuit and the principles of electricity. Students can make new circuits to use as the basis for their stories, or they can use one of the others they printed earlier. They can write their stories in AppleWorks. When the stories are complete, have students pair up and take turns reading their work to each other. As one student reads his or her story aloud, the other tries to follow the movement of the narrator or main character on the printout of the circuit diagram. Post the printed stories, together with their circuit diagrams. Vocabulary: Circuit, Current, Electron, Resistance, Voltage. |
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 Phase 2: Encourage students to click the buttons below the graphic models presented with each electricity topic in the Sci-Clopedia. These buttons activate instructive animations. Phase 2: If a student has visited the ElectroLoft previously, Surge may not begin with the easiest problems. Students can start with the first set of problems by clicking the multicolored switch near the lower-left corner of the screen and then choosing the level A. Phase 3: The buttons for printing and saving a circuit are hidden in a pop-up menu: click the red arrow directly above the Tour button to make the menu appear. This menu also contains a button that students can click to get ideas for circuits to construct. Phase 3: If students find that light bulbs or other components burn up in their circuits, the current going through them is too strong. They can replace the power source with a battery of lower voltage, replace the burned-out component with a similar one of a higher amp rating, or they can add resistance to the circuit in the form of a resistor. Phase 2, 3, and 4: You can change the way that a number of Zap! features work by accessing the Adult Options. To do this, hold down the Option and Command keys and press A. |
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PREPARATION
Read the World Book Encyclopedia article "Electricity" for background on this project. The section "Experiments with electric charge" explains Franklin's theories about electrical charge in better detail than does What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? Bring to class circuit boards from old electronic devices (computers, older calculators, radios, and so on) to give students a concrete reference point for circuits. Make copies of the "Using the Explore Mode in Zap!" Step-by-Step Card, so that you can hand them out to students when they begin using the Explore Mode in Phase 3. |
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OPTIONS AND EXTENSION ACTIVITIES
Work with students to create a visual timeline of important discoveries and inventions related to electricity and display it in the classroom. More advanced students can add a level of sophistication to their stories by doing more in-depth research into electricity and circuits in World Book Encyclopedia (articles on "Electric current" and "Battery" and "Electricity") and using that knowledge to talk about such matters as where the electrons come from in a battery. Circuits present opportunities for mathematical problem-solving. Since current, resistance, and voltage can all be measured in the ElectroLoft, you can set up problems based on Ohm 's Law (current = voltage/resistance). A fun fact to share with students: If you connect a wire with 1 ohm of resistance to both terminals of a 1 volt battery, the number of electrons flowing past any one point in the wire every second is 6,250,000,000,000,000,000! Compare electric circuit diagrams and schematics to maps. How are they similar and different? |
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THE HOME-SCHOOL CONNECTION
Students can take inventory of the electrical appliances they have at home, noting the location and purpose of each, and deducing what basic electrical components (lights, motors, heating elements, speakers) each one has. |
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 BOOKS Benjamin Franklin's Adventures With Electricity by Beverly Birch Electricity (The Usborne Young Scientist Series) by Phillip Chapman The Light Bulb and How It Changed the World by Michael Pollard Thomas Edison and Electricity by Steve Parker The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay |
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INTERNET RESOURCES
Ask Jeeves for Kids BrainPop: Electricity Electricity Online Electrified Ben Theater of Electricity |
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