Electrical Circuits Teacher Guide and Student Activities

Components and Their Uses

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Vocabulary

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Timeline

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Create a Concept Model

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Discussion Starter

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Essential Questions for Electrical Circuits

1. What is electricity?
2. What is an electrical circuit?
3. What is an open circuit?
4. What would life be like without electricity?
5. What was the most influential discovery in the history of electricity?

Background Information on Electrical Circuits

The nature of electricity has baffled scientists for millennia and was only really understood in the last 200 years. The ancient Greeks first noted the phenomenon of grass seeds sticking to amber (fossilized tree sap) after the amber was rubbed with animal fur. This is something we would later discover as static electricity. The term electricity comes from the Latin word for amber, electrum and was first used by Sir Thomas Browne in the 1600s after William Gilbert’s studies into the attractive properties of amber where he used the term "electricus".

In the late 19th century, the first public electricity network was made in Godalming, England. A Siemens generator was connected to a local water mill and wires ran through the town to connect various lights. Now we live in a new age where we cannot imagine life without electricity. And in this age, there are limits being put on our resources and scientists are looking for newer, greener, and more inventive ways to generate electricity.

A battery connected to a bulb with two wires is the simplest of electrical systems we use to start teaching our students. The battery provides a potential difference that makes the charge in the wires move around the circuit. When the charge flows, we call it an electric current. In order for current to flow, we need something to make the charge move, like a battery, and a complete path for the charges to flow around. If the electric circuit is not complete, an open circuit, the current won’t flow, and thus the bulb will not light up.

The three major variables in elementary circuits are current, voltage (potential difference), and resistance. This is summarized by Ohm’s law: voltage = current x resistance. Voltage is measured in volts, current in Amps and resistance in Ohms. You can measure current using an ammeter that is placed in series in a circuit. To measure voltage, you need to connect a voltmeter in parallel in the circuit.

If we increase the potential difference, by adding more batteries for example, then the current flowing in the circuit will also increase. Resistance is a measure of how difficult it is for the current to flow in a circuit. If we add more bulbs, the total resistance in a circuit increases. If we increase the resistance, it is harder to for electrons to move, so the current decreases, and the bulbs will be dimmer or flicker.

Additional Electrical Circuit Activity Ideas

1. Have students write a paragraph detailing what they think is the most influential discovery or invention in the field of electricity.
2. Have students create a storyboard that describes what the world would be like without electricity.
3. Get your students to make a poster storyboard detailing how to keep yourself safe around electricity.
4. Use Storyboard That to create circuit diagrams to check a design before building one in the lab!