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What Configurations Work to Light a Bulb?
Young scholars explore simple electrical circuits. Students experiment, using different configurations, to determine what is necessary to compeete a circuit. Young scholars observe similarities between arrangements that work and...
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Energy Sources
Students explore a variety of sources and types of energy. The difference between energy for a person and energy for an automobile are examined. Efficiency and care for the environment are included in this experience.
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Electricity: Going with the Flow!
Fifth graders explore a simple circuit. They experiment with a wire, light bulb and a bettery to see how many ways they can make the light bulb light up. Students describe how they were or were not ablt to light the bulb.
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Electrical Circuits
Students explore parallel and series circuits. In this electrical circuit lesson, students investigate the differences between series and parallel circuits. Students observe the benefits and drawbacks of series and parallel...
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Bulbs & Batteries Side by Side
Young scholars build parallel circuits, exploring how they function and looking at their unique features. They describe how current changes when batteries are added in parallel or removed from a parallel arrangement, demonstrate the...
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Energy Conversion in Electricity – Resistors and Circuits
Pupils explore electrical energy. In this electricity lesson, students design and build a large circuit in order to determine whether circuit size correlates with the light of a bulb.
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How Photocells Work
Give small groups of physical scientists tokens that represent electrons in a photovoltaic cell. They play a dice game in which they move the tokens around, representing the flow of electrons through the p-n junction of a semiconductor...
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Orienting a Photovoltaic Cell
By mounting a light bulb on a stand and a PV cell on another, physics apprentices experiment with the angle of incidence. Their goal is to determine the optimum angle for collecting solar energy. The use of a scientific calculator...
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The Shocking Truth About Fruit
Looking for a great lesson on circuits and conductors of electricity? Take a look at this one! In it, 6th graders create circuits out of pennies, washers, alligator clips, fruit, and LED’s. Learners use voltmeters to analyze the circuits...
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Series and Parallel Circuits
Students explore the differences between a parallel and a series circuit.For this current lesson students complete several experiments using a light bulb.
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Lights Out!
Students examine static and current electricity, and discuss what their lives would be like without electricity. They listen to a teacher-led lecture about electrons and atoms, and explore static electricity using a comb or a balloon...
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Focusing Event to Electricity
Students explain how electrical charges behave. In this electricity instructional activity, students determine how far away lightning is when it strikes. They research how fabric softener reduces static electricity and share their...
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How a Circuit Works
Students explore the differences between parallel and series circuits by designing and constructing several different circuits. In small groups, they use miniature light bulbs, wires, and nine-volt batteries to build the circuits they...
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Switcheroo
Students construct a simple switch and determine what objects and what types of materials can be used to close a switch in a circuit and light a light bulb.
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Cling On's
Learners define the term static electricity and how to it. In this electricity lesson students design and implement an experiment to show how static electricity affects their daily lives.
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Electromagnets
Pupils are introduced to the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Using a compass, they observe and record the effects of placing the object near magnetic fields and electric currents. They also experiment using a steel and...
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Electrical Circuits - Current & Voltage in Series Circuits
Students investigate the relationship between current and voltage in a series circuit. In this physics lesson, students measure the current across each light bulb. They predict what happens to the circuit if one bulb is blows out.
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Lemon Battery
Students construct their own battery made of lemons. In this electrochemistry lesson, students explain why lemons conduct electricity. They perform a series of experiments to investigate its conductivity.
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Electrifying Electricity
Young scholars explore the basics of electricity using common everyday items as well as demonstrate how parallel and series circuits can be used in electronics and electrical devices. They explore how common items in their world can be...
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Conductors, Insulators, and Semiconductors
Middle schoolers will investigate the differences in conductivity of materials, design a variety of complete circuits, and observe the differences between the manner in which light is produced in an incandescent light bulb and an LED.
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Earth's Energy
Students discuss the Earth's energy. In this science lesson, students construct a simple circuit, a series circuit, and a parallel circuit.
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One Path
Students discover that charge movement through a circuit depends on the resistance and arrangement of the circuit components. In a hands-on activity, students build and investigate the characteristics of series circuits. In another...
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String Of Lights
Students collect, graph and analyze data. In this statistics lesson, students compare data using different types of graphs. They make predictions, draw conjectures as they analyze bulbs used in a holiday light set.
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Electric Light Tower
Students examine the San Jose Light Tower as an example of the development of urban lighting circa 1900. They view a slideshow, conduct research and write newspapers to chronicle the lighting ceremony from a variety of perspectives.