Electricity: Circuits, Conductors, and Batteries
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Title:
| Electricity: Circuits, Conductors, and Batteries |
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Description:
| These sites have lots of illustrations and animations that demonstrate how electricity, circuits, and batteries work. Learn the difference between conductors and insulators and the difference between series circuits and parallel circuits. Includes a lesson plan, suggested activities, hands-on experiments, and online games and quizzes. There are links to eThemes resources on electrical safety, current and static electricity. |
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Grade Level:
| 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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Resource Links:
| PBS: AC/DC: What's the Difference
This animated feature demonstrates the difference between alternating and direct currents. Click on "Gallery" for photographs of Thomas Edison and samples of his recordings. Click on "Timeline" for important events in his life. NOTE: This site contains ads.
BBC: Changing Circuits
This is a good interactive site to help students understand circuits. The topics cover circuits, symbols, and switches. Follow through the slides, then test your knowledge by taking a quiz or an online activity. Also includes a fact sheet and test.
BrainPop: Electric Circuits
Watch an animated movie and learn about electricity, electrical circuits, and conductors and insulators. After watching the movie, take a quiz, do an experiment with conductors, and learn new words on the "Activity Page". NOTE: The web site is available by subscription only.
Frankenstein's Lightning Laboratory
This site has three different activities on electricity: safety, static, and fruity electricity experiments.
Scholastic: Make a Flashlight Shine Brighter
Learn about circuits and then try the experiment. Includes a teacher's guide.
Electricity and Magnetism
Click on "Launch Gizmo" for an interactive explanation of electricity and currents. Note: Shockwave Player is required.
Conductors and Insulators
This is an animated feature about electricity, circuits, and conductivity. Includes information about parallel and series circuits.
BBC: Electrical Conductor
Follow a link to review a concept of electrical conductors and insulators. Then play online games or take a quiz about electrical conductors.
PheT: Conductivity
Down load this simulation onto your computer and experiment with conductivity of various materials.
Penny Battery
Learn how to make a battery out of pennies. This is a two-page PDF.
Zoom: Lemon Battery
Conduct this experiment and build a battery from two lemons, paperclips, and pennies.
Science NetLinks: Static Electricity and Lightning
This is a four-part unit on static electricity and lightning. Includes nature of static electricity, where to find it, causes of sparks and lightning, and uses of static electricity. Note: This site has links to external sites.
Quia: Conductors and Insulators
Play the game and find out whether listed materials on the left insulators or conductors.
BBC: Electricity
Click on each topic to learn about electricity. The topics include electrical charge, electric current and circuits, circuit symbols, series circuits and parallel circuits, measuring current and voltage, current in series circuits, using switches, energy in electrical circuits. Includes animated diagrams.
The NASA Science Files: Circuits
This page explains differences between series and parallel circuits.
Design and Discovery Extension Activity
This page has ideas for hand-on activities for students to learn about series and parallel circuits and electrical concepts.
Lesson Plan: Comparing Series and Parallel Circuits
A 6-page PDF has worksheets and an experiment for comparing series and parallel circuits. NOTE: This site will be accessed on a seven-day trial period.
eThemes Resource: Safety: Electrical
These sites include tips for awareness and prevention of electrical hazards. Students learn how to be safe with electricity inside and outside of their homes. Includes safety tips about lightning and power lines.
eThemes Resource: Physics: Static Electricity
Learn about static electricity and how it works. Covers the topics of atoms, electrons and protons. Includes several illustrations, photos, animated movies, and many hands-on science experiments.
eThemes Resource: Physics: Current Electricity
These sites explain nature of current electricity. Here kids can learn about directions of electrons' flow, differences between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) electricity, and compare current to static electricity. The sites include photos, videos, hands-on activities, lesson plans, and simulations. There are links to eThemes resource on overview of electricity, static electricity, and circuits, conductors, and batteries.
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Education Standards:
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AL Standards:
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5
AR Standards:
PS.7.4.2, PS.7.4.3
AU Standards:
4.6.3.a, 4.6.3.b, 4.6.8.a, 4.6.8.b, 4.6.9.b, 4.12.1.b
DE Standards:
1.1.7, 1.1.10, 1.1.12, 1.1.15, 2.1.1, 3.1.1, 3.2.1, 3.2.3, 3.2.5, 3.3.1, 1.1.7, 1.1.8, 1.1.19, 1.2.1, 3.1.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.2.3, 3.4.1
IL Standards:
12.4.18, 12.4.20, 12.4.21, 12.7.40, 12.7.52
ME Standards:
D4.d, D4.d
MO Standards:
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 1.10, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 1, 7, 1.2.A.a, 1.2.A.c, 1.2.F.a, 2.2.D.f, 8.1.A.a, 8.1.C.a, 1.2.A.h, 1.2.A.i, 1.2.A.l
NV Standards:
P.5.B.4, P.5.C.5, P.8.B.2, P.8.C.6
OK Standards:
B.2.1, B.2.2, B.2.1, B.2.2, B.2.3
UT Standards:
IV.1.a, IV.1.b, IV.1.c, IV.1.d, IV.1.e, IV.2.a, IV.2.b, IV.2.c, IV.2.d
If you are an eMINTS teacher and standards have not been defined for your
state, click the button below to request that they be assigned to this resource.
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