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 resistors affect a circuit and test their hypotheses. 

Concepts

electric currents, electricity, voltage, series circuits, parallel circuits, resistors

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Activity best fits near beginning of unit on electricity
• Spread activity over two days to allow for more in-depth discussion and comprehension

Classroom Considerations

• Materials needed include three capacitor bundles for each group, one circuit board per group, one multi-meter per group, and an abundance of light bulbs
• Activity is appropriate for high-level learners at the middle school level and high-school learners

Pros

• Lesson provides scripted questions/answers to ask before and after each portion of the activity
• Contains extension questions and student handout
• Includes extended resources

Cons

• Recommends a slideshow to teach the terms; cannot find the slideshow

Common Core

RST.9-10.3