This lab demonstrates Ohm's law as students set up simple circuits each composed of a battery, lamp and resistor. Students calculate the current flowing through the circuits they create by solving linear equations. After solving for the current, I, for each set resistance value, students plot the three points on a Cartesian plane and note the line that is formed. They also see the direct correlation between the amount of current flowing through the lamp and its brightness.

In this lesson, students will investigate energy, electricity, and circuits by creating an emergency flashlight using common everyday materials. Then they will work collaboratively to design a model subdivision, creating a simple circuit to provide light to the "buildings" in their model.

In this activity, students build and experiment with electric circuits using easily available materials. Students are challenged to find three pathways that successfully complete the circuit, and three pathways that do not successfully complete the circuit. Students will sketch the pathways in their journals, and compare and contrast their drawings with peers.

Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnet and experiment with ways to change its strength to pick up more paper clips. Students learn about ways that engineers use electromagnets in everyday applications.

In this electric circuit guided inquiry students will investigate what an electric circuit is, the main parts of a circuit and the difference between series and parallel circuits. Students will work in small groups and create a circuit using materials provided by the teacher. Students will draw and label a closed and open circuit, a series of circuits, and parallel circuit. Students will then meet with a different small group and share their results.

This brief video lesson discusses the physics of electrical phenomena by looking at the history of the major vocabulary terms associated with electricity such as electron, battery, charge, and current. Discussion/assessment questions and suggested supplemental resources are included.

In this introductory physics activity, students will investigate the basic requirements for electricity. They will create a simple circuit for a quiz board that will light up when the correct matching pair is selected. Students will create six questions and answers for the quiz board, using electricity vocabulary terms.

In this activity students will first brainstorm all the terms (vocabulary) they can think of related to electricity. Next, they will work collaboratively in groups to try to define these terms. Then in groups they will create word webs drawing correlations between the various terms. Groups will discuss how light bulbs work, how they light up, write down their ideas. Next, students will try to draw what they believe a circuit is and how it works. They will need to write several sentences concerning their thoughts. Then they will be given a battery, wires and a light bulb and asked to check their designs. Students will explore what they believe series and parallel circuits are, write down their ideas and draw some pictures. They then will be given materials to try and create these circuits. Finally, students will predict and test differences in bulb brightness in a variety of series and parallel circuits.

In this lab activity, students will design and build a complete circuit, record diagrams and notes in their journals, and use a compass to record the directionality of electricity in the circuit.

 Background:  students are familiar with static electricity, charge, and sparks.  They also know about conservation of energy, forms of energy including potential energy, power, and work.  Students will complete a variety of activities using breadboards, which will display various types of circuits and their effect on the flow of electricity.

Students use potatoes to light an LED clock (or light bulb) as they learn how a battery works in a simple circuit and how chemical energy changes to electrical energy. As they learn more about electrical energy, they better understand the concepts of voltage, current and resistance.

Students build their own two-cell batteries. They also determine which electrolyte solution is best suited for making batteries.