Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Get Connected with Ohm's Law
Ideal for your electricity unit, especially with middle schoolers, this lesson plan gets engineers using multimeters in electrical circuits to explore the relationships among voltage, current, and resistance. Older learners may even plot...
Exploratorium
Short Circuit
Though not commonly searched for, this is a vivid demonstration of how a fuse can be blown, or rather, how resistance works in an electric circuit. You will basically set up a circuit with no lights or bells or motors, allowing the wire...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Basic Electric Transformers
Life as we know it would not be possible without electric transformers, so there are fewer more pertinent topics for your eager young engineers. An astounding amount of background information is provided to help you develop a lecture on...
Magic of Physics
Electric Circuits
Teaching about circuits can be as easy as flipping a switch! Science scholars explore the world of electricity using a fun interactive. The resource uses drag-and-drop images to promote an understanding of circuit components, types of...
Museum of Science
Circuit Board
Light up the solutions. By following a set of directions, pupils build a circuit board with six different circuits. Learners use the circuit board to create a matching activity by connecting the questions to the correct answers via a...
Columbus City Schools
It’s Electric!
Shocking! Who knew so many great ideas existed for teaching middle schoolers about electricity? Find them all within this energetic framework. You'll light up at the variety of printable and web-based resources within! After building...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Electric Switches
Students examine how electric circuits are controlled with a switch. They incorporate a switch into a battery/bulb circuit. They design and create their own switches using everyday materials.
Bonneville
What is Electricity and How Do We Use It?
Use some electrifying lessons to learn about electricity. Future scientists discover the history of electricity and the basics of electric circuits. They learn how to read an electricity bill and then create circuits to power a fan,...
US Department of Energy
Electric Avenue: Parallel and Series Circuits
Can you infer the wiring diagram of a series of lights based on their behavior alone? Scholars work with multiple boxes of four lights. They must flip the switch and decide how the lights are wired. By applying their knowledge of...
Teach Engineering
Powering a Device Using Food
Eat up a resource on using food to power electrical devices. Future engineers first experiment with different fruits and vegetables to determine the amount of electrical energy they provide. Based on the data, they design and create an...
California State Parks
A Teaching Unit on Electricity
It's the invisible energy most people take for granted. Explore the properties of electricity in a complete three-week unit. Learners first manipulate circuits, then experiment with electromagnetism, and finally discover different...
DiscoverE
Circuits Activity Packet Grades: 6-12
Generate a buzz about circuits. Scholars conduct four activities to learn about electric circuits. They create dance pads that buzz and flash when stepped on, build hidden alarms, design creatures with eyes that flash, and take part in...
Purdue University
Design of a Door Alarm
How does electricity work? Budding scientists explore the concepts of electrical currents and open and closed circuits with class discussion and a hands-on activity using a battery to turn on a light bulb. Learners also make predictions...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Electrical Energy
My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt! In the hands-on activity, learners explore electricity by building circuits, both parallel and series. They also determine how increasing the number of light bulbs and...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Two Button Buzzer Circuit
Learners explore circuit structure, draw a schematic for it, and construct a two button buzzer model out of wires, a battery, buttons (switches), and a buzzer.
Teach Engineering
Introduction to Circuits and Ohm's Law
Take a very basic understanding of circuits and develop a strong understanding of the parts and function of a circuit. This activity is developed to be an independent exploration of circuits from the basics to series and parallel models....
Perkins School for the Blind
Building a Basic Series Circuit
Make science a fully accessible subject for your learners with visual impairments. They'll use tactile models to explore the nature of basic electrical circuits. Template board, wires, batteries, and Velcro are used to construct the...
Bonneville
A Simple Circuit
Heat up a lesson on solar energy by building a circuit for a cooling fan. Given a solar module and a DC motor, scholars develop hypotheses for how to make the fan turn. They test out their hypotheses, and then draw a circuit diagram to...
DiscoverE
Hidden Alarm
It's time to wake up! Young engineers build an electric circuit that will activate an alarm. The use of switches in the circuit is a must—because you don't want the alarm to keep beeping forever!
DiscoverE
Oranges and Batteries
Orange you glad you can make circuits using fruit? Young electricians learn about electric circuits and electricity. As part of the lesson, they build a circuit with an orange and then with a banana.
Bonneville
Macro-Scale Solar
There's no substitute for the power of the sun. The second of four installments of the Solar Resources Assessment unit looks at macro-scale photovoltaic (PV) technology. Future scientists first learn about PV modules with a PowerPoint...
DiscoverE
Dance Pad Mania
You'll dance for joy at finding a helpful resource. Learners use their knowledge of electric circuits and currents to create a dance pad. Buzzes or flashes should occur when dancers step on the dance pads—a sure sign they have all the...
Teach Engineering
Circuits and Magnetic Fields
Have your class use compasses to try to find the magnetic field around an electric current. Groups use the same technique to visualize magnetic fields as they did in the second activity in the series, but this time, the field is created...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Series and Parallel Circuits
Students demonstrate simple circuits and find the differences between parallel and serial circuits. In this electronic lesson plan students work in teams to test different designs using a low voltage light bulb.