Circuit Blocks
Objectives
● Youth will strategically identify problems in their circuits and test multiple solutions (Ohio SEL)
● Youth will ask and investigate questions about electricity and circuits. They will use their observations to explain how their circuits work and share their understanding with others. (NGSS)
● Youth will experiment with motors, lights and speakers to create simple, series and parallel circuits They will experience electrical energy being transformed to other forms of energy (Ohio Science Standards)
Materials:
Nametags
Markers
Post-its
Flipchart
Easel
Circuit sticks
Conductive materials
Insulating materials
Conductor/insulator labels
Circuit diagrams
Welcome
Supplies: nametags, markers, flipchart, easel
Prep: Arrange tables/chairs so youth sit in a large circle together
Masking tape
Circuit blocks
AA batteries
Alligator clips
Multimeter
Circuit diagrams
Hand-crank generator
Baskets
iPads/cameras
Photo Challenge printout
1. Make a name tag for each student with their age and preferred name.
2 Welcome to Maker Club! What do you think of when you think of a Maker? (Take responses)
3 Today we are conducting experiments with electricity
a. What do you know about electricity?
b What do you wonder about electricity?
Activity
1: Conductor / Insulator Investigation
Supplies: Circuit sticks, conductive materials, insulating materials, baskets, conductor/insulator labels, masking tape
1 Introduce the circuit stick:
a. The Circuit Stick is a circuit tester It contains batteries lights speakers and a small circuit board connected from connection between the two
b Watch what happens when I touch both rings! (demonstrate) Our bodies are conductive, so by touching both silver rings I completed the circuit in the Circuit Stick
c. How could we repeat this with two people? (Follow student suggestions - eventually demonstrate that each person should touch one end of the circuit stick with one hand and touch each other with the other hand ) We can create a human circuit!
2. Introduce the investigation:
a What else on this table could we use to make a circuit?
b Show students how to hold the circuit stick between them in one hand and their variable items in the other hand
c. Sort the materials that work from the materials that don’t work.
3 Provide an explanation:
a The materials that work with the Circuit Stick are called conductors They allow electricity to flow through them.
b The materials that don’t work with the Circuit Stick are called insulators They slow or stop the flow of electricity Background knowledge for facilitator:
● Electricity - Electricity is the movement of electrons from atom to another atom through a material This flow is called a current Currents go in one direction at a time (Spangler)
● Conductor - Something that allows a current to move through it freely is called a conductor Good conductors include most metals such as copper, aluminum, iron, silver, gold, and lead, but there are others like water, mercury, and neon (Spangler)
● Insulator - If a material slows or even stops the current altogether, it offers resistance to the current and is called an insulator. Materials like glass, rubber, plastic, paper, cloth, and wood are very good insulators (Spangler)
● Since your body is mostly water and there are water and minerals on your skin, your body can be a conductor, but a poor one. The weak current travels from one silver ring onto one hand and then across the surface of your skin to the other hand and onto the other silver ring This complete loop is called a closed circuit and allows the Circuit Stick to do its detection thing Take a hand off a silver ring and you break or open the circuit. If the charge is big enough, the current can jump this gap and a bright, blue arc is the result (but it won’t happen with a Circuit Stick) Grab the silver ring once more and you make a complete circuit That’s just what a switch on a wall does or a circuit breaker (or fuse) does in the breaker box on a house It stops the current (Spangler)
Activity 2: Circuit Blocks
Supplies: Circuit blocks, alligator clips, AA batteries, lightbulbs, multimeter, circuit diagrams, troubleshooting sign
1 Invite students to experiment with circuits:
a. Do you think you can get this light to light up?
b Can you make something work by attaching a battery to it with the wires?
2 Offer each person (or team) two alligator clip leads, one battery block, and one light bulb block
3 Once someone is successful at getting the light bulb to light:
a. Offer them a motor block and ask them if they could now try to connect the motor to the battery to make it turn OR
b Offer them a second light bulb block and ask them to connect both lights in the circuit OR
c. Offer them a switch and ask them to add it to their circuit.
Background knowledge for facilitator:
● Circuit - A circuit is a complete path around which electricity can flow It must include a source of electricity, such as a battery.
○ Series - All of the parts of the circuit power source, wires, and devices are connected along the same pathway; the devices are connected one after another When electrical components are connected in series, they share the power of the battery.
○ Parallel - Each device in a parallel circuit is on a separate pathway When electrical components are connected in parallel, each receives the full power of the battery The current will continue to flow to one device even if the wire connected to another device is disconnected (DKFindOut)
● Switch - A switch is a device that opens and closes a circuit to turn on/off a component
● Multimeter - Roughly, meter means measure and multi means many So, a multimeter is something that measures many things. In this case, it means that it measures multiple electrical related things (CircuitBread)
○ Measuring electricity: The electrical energy in a circuit can be measured in terms of both current and voltage. Current is the rate at which charge flows through a circuit, whereas voltage measures how strong that charge is at a given point
○ An analogy to current and voltage is water running through a pipe: current is similar to a measure of how much water is flowing through the pipe per second; voltage is like a measure of how forcefully the water is pushing past a given point (DKFindOut)
● LED - A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that produces light from electricity Electricity can only flow in one direction through a diode
(Optional) Activity 3: Intro to Photovoice
Supplies: Cameras, iPads
1. For youth who finish tinkering with circuits early, offer to have them take on the role of photographers
2 Before handing them the cameras, offer them two “tips”:
a. ALWAYS ask permission before taking someone’s photo.
b Tell your “subject” what you want to capture in your photo (“Can I take a photo of you turning your circuit on?”)
3. Photo prompts (Introduce one at a time. Challenge to get 3-5 photos for each prompt.)
Facilitator Tips:
● Our goal is not to “teach” specific things about circuits, but to allow a first-hand understanding to develop over time.
○ Let people make simple discoveries for themselves, and allow learners the opportunity to be proud of small steps when getting things to work
○ Allowing people to get stuck is important, and doing what you can to linger in that moment before you step in and “help” might go a long way toward developing confidence in the learner Don’t wait too long, however, because we don’t want people to give up This takes practice.
○ Try sharing new ideas in non-verbal ways For example, construct an interesting circuit or contraption next to them to see if they are able to observe and understand what you have done Then you can talk about it with them
○ Offer a challenge that is a little bit tricky. For example, ask them, “Can you make three lights turn on by wiring them three different ways?” (This is a way to explore parallel and series circuits )
● If something isn’t working, ask specifically what they are trying to do and ask them to show you how they have already completed a circuit like it with these materials This way you can get a sense of how the learner is thinking about things
○ Do what you can to offer suggestions along the lines of their current ideas Try to resist offering your solution to their problem
○ Eliminate variables - use the multimeter to confirm the batteries are charged.
○ Simplify - spread out components and uncross wires to help them clearly see the circular path of the circuit
○ Social-scaffolding - Ask if another learner might be willing to step in and help out someone else at the table This is a good idea to allow them to put their new understanding to work, but be careful that they don’t take over someone else’s investigation
● Sometimes a learner might make something work, but unintentionally. You might check this by asking them to apply the same wiring to another component
Group Debrief
Today we tinkered with electricity and circuits!
● What do you know about electricity?
● How is electricity important to you and your community?
Standards/Competencies
● Mind of a Maker - Exploration - I try new things and am curious about the world around me
● Ohio SEL - Competency E1: Develop, implement and model effective decision and critical thinking skills (3-5)
○ E1 1 b Generate possible solutions or responses to a problem or needed decision recognizing that there may be more than one perspective
○ E1 2 b Implement strategies to solve a problem
● NGSS MS Engineering Design Standards & NGSS Science and Engineering Practices
○ Practice 1 Asking Questions and Defining Problems
■ Ask questions about what would happen if a variable is changed Identify scientific (testable) and non-scientific (non testable) questions.
■ Ask questions that can be investigated and predict reasonable outcomes based on patterns such as cause and effect relationships (Youth will ask questions about the structure and function of circuit components while interacting with circuit blocks.)
○ Practice 3 Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
■ Make predictions about what would happen if a variable changes (Youth will practice predicting and testing single variable changes with circuit blocks.)
○ Practice 6 Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions
■ Construct an explanation of observed relationships (e g , the distribution of plants in the backyard).
■ Use evidence (e g , measurements, observations, patterns) to construct or support an explanation or design a solution to a problem
■ Identify the evidence that supports particular points in an explanation
○ Practice 8 Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information
■ Communicate scientific and/or technical information orally and/or in written formats, including various forms of media as well as tables, diagrams, and charts (Youth will explain to peers and adults how their circuits work (or why they don't work) based on their observations and experimentation )
● Ohio Science Standards
○ 3.ESS.2: Earth’s resources can be used for energy.
■ Renewable energy resources, such as wind, water or solar energy, can be replenished within a short amount of time by natural processes
■ Nonrenewable energy is a finite resource, such as natural gas, coal or oil, which cannot be replenished in a short amount of time
○ 3 PS 3: Heat, electrical energy, light, sound and magnetic energy are forms of energy There are many different forms of energy. Energy is the ability to cause motion or create change The different forms of energy that are outlined at this grade level should be limited to familiar forms that a student is able to observe
○ 4 PS 2: Energy can be transferred from one location to another or can be transformed from one form to another.
■ Energy transfers from hot objects to cold objects as heat, resulting in a temperature change
■ Electric circuits require a complete loop of conducting materials through which electrical energy can be transferred
■ Electrical energy in circuits can be transformed to other forms of energy, including light, heat, sound and motion. Electricity and magnetism are closely related
○ 5 PS 2: Light and sound are forms of energy that behave in predictable ways Light travels and maintains its direction until it interacts with an object or moves from one medium to another and then it can be reflected, refracted or absorbed
Conductors
Let electricity flow.
Insulators
Do NOT let electricity flow.
Conductors
Let electricity flow.
Insulators
Do NOT let electricity flow.
