Introduction+to+Electricity

Introduction to Electricity

Alvin - The students should do more investigating with series and parallel circuits before starting this lab. The lab seems to start off with telling the students to set up the circuits, I would do more exploration first. Also the lab doesn't do a good job of clarifying the difference between the series/parallel circuit and the series/parallel battery configuration. However, I thought that experimenting with different metals in the wet cell battery was a good idea.

Keith Madden - I found that this lab had a good deal of latitude for improvisation. With the components that are provided, there are many possibilities for finding conditions where current will or won't flow. With the voltmeter and ammeter, the students can investigate both the "why?" and "how much?" of current flow in there simple circuits. Great fun!

Deb Semmler- Very much like many intro to electricity kits I've seen but the price seemed reasonable. I would use this for an ICP class or an intro physical science course. I agree that they should explore more to figure out how it works rather than have them following set-up directions although it depends on how much time you have to devote to the topic.

Ken - This kit was great for electrical circuitry study. It could easily be a good source for doing inquiry-based nature of science labs.

Louann: This one is a lot of fun. I can see kids really getting into this one. I might even try using it before teaching the content, just having kids make observations and try out different set-ups. I bet they could even figure out some of the basic concepts themselves.