Curated OER
Electricity and Food: From Glowing Pickles in Citrus Batteries
Fifth graders explore electrical concepts and host a guest speaker. This lesson sets up guidelines for students to follow when they have a guest speaker. Students are primed to become actively involved in a lecture or discussion, while...
Curated OER
Understanding: Electricity
Learners view a segment of "Electricity's Power," they focus on the professions- lightning researcher, scientist specializing in electricity in space, and a lineman. They choose one profession, students explore and investigate about the...
Curated OER
Electric Power Transmission and Distribution
Students explain how power is transmitted over long distances. In this physics lesson, students simulate controlling power flow in parallel transmission lines. They discuss several applications of wireless power transmission.
Curated OER
Electricity - How it Works and How We Measure and Pay For It
Students investigate energy consumption by researching wattage. Â In this electricity lesson, students discuss how electricity works and gets transferred to our electronic devices through generators and circuits. Â Students examine their...
Curated OER
Investigating Electrical Circuits
Sixth graders draw and construct a complete circuit. In small groups they develop a list of questions about electricity, listen to a teacher-led lecture, construct a complete circuit, test circuits, and create an illustration of a...
Curated OER
Leyden Jar: Static Electricity
Students experiment with a Leyden Jar, a device that stores electrical charges. A large voltage can be built up in this jar by adding more and more charge. The modern name for this device is a capacitor.
Curated OER
Electricity Layered Curriculum
Students describe how electric charges exert forces on each other as well as compare the strengths of electric and gravitational forces. They distinguish between conductors and insulators. In addition, students examine voltage and...
Curated OER
Electrical Generators
Students study what an electric generator does and its history. In this energy lesson students complete several experiments including building their own electric generator.
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...
Curated OER
Electricity
Students watch instructor present demonstrations of the basic principles of static electricity, and then conduct some of their own experiments. In small groups, students build simple circuits, using batteries, to try to light up a light...
Curated OER
Can You Get A Charge Out Of Matter?
Learners observe and demonstrate how objects can be charged positively and negatively and how static electricity works. They observe a teacher-led demonstration, and in small groups rotate through various static electricity activities,...
Curated OER
Galvanometers
Learners construct their own galvanometer. In this physics lesson, students explain how it is used to detect electric current. They conduct an experiment to measure how much electricity flows through the circuit.
Curated OER
Electrical Resistivity
Learners examine how materials oppose the flow of an electrical current. In this resistivity lesson students complete several experiments on the differences between resistance and resistivity.
Curated OER
Magnet Mania
Students explore magnetic fields. They listen to a teacher-led discussion, and conduct an experiment in which they create a magnetic field using electricity and observing its effect on the magnetic needle on a compass.
Curated OER
Solar Kit Lesson #6: Solar-Powered Battery Charger
In a previous activity, learners build an ammeter. That ammeter, or a pre-made one, is required in order to carry out this activity. The objective is for lab groups to design a way to connect solar cells that can recharge a battery....
Curated OER
Electrical Energy
Students conduct an experiment to find out how well different wires radiate heat when voltage is applied across the wire. They use the results of their experiments to consider how the gauge of the wire and the type of wire affect the...
Curated OER
Paths of Electrical Currents
Fourth graders examine the paths that electrical currents travel. They create a current of electricity using flashlights, bulbs, batteries, wires and tape. They determine how to create a closed circuit that will light the bulb. They...
Curated OER
Castaway or Survivor
What a clever idea! Chemistry learners imagine themselves deserted on an island with a radio, but no batteries. They also have a few odds and ends in their pockets and storage chest. They are challenged to create a battery that will...
Curated OER
Electrostatics
Students explore charges using balloons and soap bubbles. For this chemistry lesson, students analyze the Van de Graaf generator to see how charges flow using charged particles, static electricity and lighting. This assignment requires...
Curated OER
Aurora Borealis
Students discuss what causes the northern lights and the folklore attached to them. They discuss magnetic fields, and use various common materials to discover if ions conduct electricity.
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....
Curated OER
Introduction to Elementary Circuits
Students explore how a circuit works and create a circuit to use energy from a battery to light a bulb. In this introduction to circuits lesson plan, the students study the parts of a circuit and have a class discussion of what would...
Curated OER
Using Transistors: Let's Get Transistorized!
Students build two circuits and explore how transistors function. This activity allow them to observe the operation of a transistor as an amplifier.
Cornell University
Making a Battery
Don't be shocked when your class has a blast making their own batteries! Science scholars examine a dry cell battery, then design and construct a wet cell battery. The activity guides them through the parts of a battery, the variables...