LESSON:

Squishy Circuits touched on the idea of parallel and series circuits.  To better understand the circuits we will be doing actives to build simple circuits and parallel circuits.  Next week we will hit on series circuits.

Series circuits –  Electricity flows in a loop called a circuit. A circuit starts and stops at the battery pack, and flows through wires, conductive dough, and electrical components such as LEDs and motors

.   

Questions

1 What is a short circuit?

2. somethings conduct electricity some do not.  What did we use that did not conduct electricity?  what else could we have used?

3. what did you notice about the LED?

Parellel Circuit – A parallel circuit allows multiple paths for electricity to flow through.

Questions:

1. what happens if I remove one led from this picture?
2. how many paths is the electricity taking in this picture?

You will be given a series of nine challenges. five simple circuit challenges and four parallel circuit challenges.  Go through each one of the SimpleParellelv4 trading off with your partner.  Some of the components will not work.  You must try to figure out which ones and go to the Extra supply container and get the proper component to fix your circuit.  When you are done with the challenge make sure to put the broken component back in the challenge for the next student.

A battery tester is also provided along with a small screwdriver in the TOOL BIN.  When using the battery tester set it to the correct size battery and test it to see if it is good.

---

ACTIVITY: Electrical Challenges.   Read the instructions on the card and complete the challenge.  Fill out the ElectricChallengeSimpleCircuitcheckoff.

Groups