Electricity and Electrical Energy
This topic is broken into units to help in formulating cohesive, effective lessons. Clicking on each unit title below will display appropriate activities, lesson plans, or labs.
Unit materials are a subset of all possible materials available for this topic, selected especially with the new physics teacher in mind. You may instead browse all materials for this topic here .
Physics First Electricity and Electrical Energy Units
Electricity is a natural phenomenon that can be both invisible AND visible, both matter and energy, a type of wave made of protons or a force that cannot be seen. It can move at the speed of light... yet it vibrates in a cord without flowing at all. It can be weightless, or have a small weight. Flowing in a light bulb filament, it transforms into light, but is not used up. It can be stored in batteries. "Electricity" is not only a class of phenomena; it's a type of event.
Activities:
Full instructions are given for set-up and data recording in this introductory lab designed for "first-time" circuit builders. This lesson includes a set of follow-up questions to assess comprehension.
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Content Support For Teachers:
It may be easier to understand about electricity if we think of electric charge as a sort of a fluid, like water, as scientists did for over 200 years.
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Lesson Plans:
This item is a lesson plan featuring the neon bulb, an object that can be lighted either by electric current or by static electricity. Accompanied by detailed background information, this lesson promotes conceptual understanding of electron transfer.
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Activities:
This applet simulates the transient behavior that occurs when a capacitor is being charged and discharged. Students can change the magnitudes of the resistance, capacitance, and the voltage of the battery, as well as flip a switch between its two positions. The applet then graphs both voltage and current in the circuit as functions of time.
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One way to charge an object is through the process of induction, in which a charged object is brought near, but not touched to, a neutral conducting object. This animation does a nice job of depicting the induction process, accompanied by text written for the beginner.
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This is a simple simulation appropriate for physical science or beginning physics, but which could be extended for more complex exploration. It shows five moveable charges and their attractive/repelling interactions. Students figure out whether the charges are negative or positive and relative sizes of each.
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References and Collections:
This collection of 41 interactive java tutorials would be an excellent choice to connect physics to "real-world" applications. Designed by well-respected authors, the topics range from simulated magnetic fields and field lines to primers on capacitance, resistance, Ohm's Law, and electromagnetic induction. Included are simulations on how things work, such as vacuum tube diodes, cathode rays, capacitors, AC/DC generators, hard drives, pulsed magnets, and speakers.
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Lesson Plans:
This item contains full instructions for a lab exploring the properties of series and parallel circuits. The lesson plan includes materials needed, procedures for the students to follow, expected results, and a brief discussion of the physical concepts involved.
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This one-day lab is a great way for students to investigate factors causing short circuits. Reproducible prediction charts help students learn by gauging their preconceived ideas against observed outcomes in the lab. Materials are readily accessible and inexpensive to obtain.
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Activities:
This high-quality interactive simulation is a good choice for beginning high school physics or physical science. Students build a virtual DC circuit, using the mouse to attach wires, batteries, switches, and resistors. This particular simulation has received excellent reviews in extensive field testing, especially when done in conjunction with a hands-on lab.
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For the novice with little prior experience in circuit construction, this item offers well-organized step-by-step directions for setting up series and parallel circuit labs. (Scroll to bottom for cost-free materials.)
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This item offers guided practice to students in designing a variety of circuits, with pop-up explanations to augment simulated images.
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This applet simulates the transient behavior of a simple RC circuit. Students can change the magnitudes of the resistance, capacitance, and the voltage of the battery, as well as flip a switch between its two positions. The applet then graphs both voltage and current in the circuit as functions of time.
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Activities:
This is a simple simulation appropriate for beginning students, but could be extended for more complex exploration. It shows five moveable charges and their attractive/repelling interactions. The task is to figure out relative sign and size of the charges. More advanced students can explore the Coulomb force vectors on each charge.
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Activities:
In this activity from the PTRA manual "Role of the Laboratory in Teaching Introductory Physics", students set up their first circuit using meters and specially made resistors in heat sink boxes, which do not require alligator clips and don't burn hands.
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