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Create Electricity
Create Electricity
Borrow it?
Borrow it?
Look, nearly every district or county office of Ed has a place where teachers can borrow stuff. Mine is ERS Library at Tulare County Office of Education. If you got one, it probably have lots of science kits there that you don't know anything about. So call and ask if they have snap circuits, or cublets. Both of these teaches kids how electricity works and some basic computer programming stuff. And honestly, they are super easy to use, super kid-friendly, and really fun. I put some links here on the pictures in case you had some extra budget money and wanted to buy it.
Build it?
Build it?
There are a few easy experiments about electricity that I like to make.
(1) Make some sparks from thin air... using basic supplies: Scotch tape, Styrofoam cup, disposable aluminum pie pan, Styrofoam dinner plate, a piece of wool. Click on images to the left for more info... In fact, you can make electricity from five pennies.
(2) Make a "flashlight" out of an index card. This experiment is a great thing for kids to take home and show parents with minimal materials: index cards, boil, a button battery, tape, scissors, a 5 mm LED light…
Now, if you ain't too familiar, build it yourself and then give the materials to groups of kids and let them try to figure it out. This is why I like to start with a snap circuits from my school… It sets up a basic understanding of electricity, before the students need to create it on their own with these experiments.
Build it... via computer simulation.
Build it... via computer simulation.
Have students log into chromebook and try this simulation. You can have students gets more advanced with capacitors, voltmeters... without the mess to clean up!
Transferring Energy
Transferring Energy
This is a great simulation to use to show how energy can turn on a light bulb, or boil water or whatever piece you choose. Definitely model with the class first on the overhead and use it to guide a discussion. That modeling would be PART ONE of this worksheet. At Part Two, you can let the student work the simulation for themselves to complete PART TWO.
Build a Power Plant
Build a Power Plant
How to use energy is the biggest problem facing our world today. Solar power and fossil fuels and carbon emissions... It's a big problem. Before we even talk about how to utilize power, we need to know where to go to get power. Use this Data Explorer to see where the raw power is located. If I were you, I would let kids explore the website and tools for about ten minutes. Have student click on the "Data Library" in order to choose the parameters of their searches. Maybe start off with something vague like "Power sources near your home" or maybe assign everyone a country of the world and see what their #1 power source is... Whatever. Just let them explore these tools.. Then, I give students a worksheet to organize their finding. The idea is "If you are going to build a power plant to make electric energy from a natural renewable source, where are you going to build that power plant?"
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or nrel.gov has some easy to follow videos about different types of energy just for this project!
Understanding Solar Power
Understanding Solar Power
(1) Play this video to introduce the idea of converting sunlight into electricity.
(2) Play this video to peak their curiosity.. Why not just build solar panels in every desert??
Other Engineering Stuff
Other Engineering Stuff
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