Electricity Unit Electrical Engineering

A semester outline of an electricity unit for fourth graders.
It covers important MCAS topics like simple circuits, series and parallel circuits, and electromagnets.

Link to semester outline with updated links: https://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/x/wiQ6Aw

Overview of unit:

1.Static Electricity Intro

-powerpoint of basic static electricity principles

-demos: pvc pipe and paper, paperclips

2. Squishy Circuits

-powerpoint of circuit basics

Squishy Circuits

3. Valentine's Day Electrical Greeting Cards

-craft activity that reviewed simple circuits. They built a card that incorporated a circuit with a battery and a light or a motor.

P1020607.JPG example with motor

P1020614.JPG example with light

4. Build A Flashlight

http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=collection/cub_/activities/cub_electricity/cub_electricity_lesson05_activity2.xml

-application of circuits in everyday life

-making the circuits more compact for a device

Flashlight

We tried to make the circuit building easier by using christmas lights and cutting them up and exposing the wires like this http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/light-circuit-sick-science. We went through a lot of bulbs because they would burn out often using 9V batteries so it was useful to have a whole string of lights available and we could just strip more as we needed.

We also bought 6 of these switches https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9414 later in the semester which would have been good for this project so they are available in the supply closet now, check for them with the light bulbs.

5. Parallel circuits

-discovery experiment, how to keep one light on while turning one off

Powerpoints: Parallel circuits https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sn3coOqPsIKPVqWZntIFqB_s6oL7Mf3BlbmnbTk3vws/edit?usp=sharing

"Will this circuit work?" review https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15wuVU2suXNHob99nINiqtpK3u2xd4MvrgB3MHL65ziU/edit?usp=sharing

6. Electromagnets

-building

-picking up paper clips

-talk about the connection between electricity and magnetism

Power Point:

Electromagnets

7. Superhero final project-using circuits and electromagnets to build a superhero device

Power Point: