Topic

Electricity

Lesson 3

Objective

AC/DC , circuit is a closed loop, uses, opposite charge?

Essential Question

What is electricity?

Why do we want electricity?

State Standards

4.1d Different forms of energy include heat, light, electrical, mechanical, sound, nuclear,
         and chemical. Energy is transformed in many ways.

4.4d Electrical energy can be produced from a variety of energy sources and can be
         transformed into almost any other form of energy.

(pp. 30-31)

Hands On

Five stations where students engage in learning different characteristics of electricity and electrical circuits.

1)      Simple DC circuit

        Students construct a simple DC circuit using a light bulb and a battery.
        Reinforces the idea that electricity must travel in a loop.

2)      Faraday's Law

        Coil of wire around empty toilet paper roll. The wire leads are connected to  a
        multi-meter and students observe the effect of passing a magnet through the
        tube at different rates. The number of loops of wire could be different for each
        group in the room so that a correlation between loop number and voltage is
        observed.

3)      Static Electricity

        A Cheerio^© is suspended on a piece of string. Using a comb a student will
        brush their hair, then bring the comb near the Cheerio^©. At first the Cheerio^©
        will be attracted and eventually fall away, remove the comb, bring it back again
        and this time the Cheerio^© will be repulsed.

4)      The Atom

        Students sit in a circle and pass "electrons" (paper balls) from atom to atom
        (student to student). Faster passing requires more energy, causes students to
        become warmer. Electrons move from negative to positive battery (1 box to
        another around circle)

5)      Lemon Power

        An ordinary lemon can produce 1 volt of electricity using only a paper clip and a
        piece of copper wire. Students build a simple "lemon battery cell" and can use
        either a multimeter to determine the voltage and/or touch the end of the paper
        clip and the copper wire to two different places on their tongue and feel a tingle
        between.

Discovery

Real World Application

Results/Assessment

Enrichment or Further Development

For a TED talk about wireless electricity click here.

Wake Forest University Physics Department demonstration videos on electricity

PHET Simulation on static electricity:

This demo involves lighting a fluorescent tube, but only works if the room can be really well darkened. Discovery Education has a complete list of instructions.

POPS