Wiring a House Projects

March 18-22

The task of the students was to wire a "house" with at least 4 rooms, a light bulb, and a switch in each room.

Click on the video below to see all the house projects and the voted winners for Most Creative, Neatest Wiring, Coolest Feature, and Overall Most Awesome-EST House!

Making a Filament

March 15th

We talked about a filament and how that is the wire that lights up an incandescent light bulb. We also discussed and analyzed advantages and disadvantages of using LEDs, Compact Florescents and Incandescent light bulbs.

Using nichrome wire, we made filaments and watched them glow.

You can see the wire in the middle glowing a reddish/orange hue.  

See the orange glow in the middle of the picture. 

Batteries

March 14th

In the beginning of class, we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of parallel and series circuits.

We talked about batteries and the necessary parts of a battery and how it works.
1. An electrolyte
2. a cathode (metal)
3. an anode (metal)

Next we attempted to make different kinds of batteries and read the amount of volts the batteries produces with a voltmeter.

1. Lemon batteries
2. Coke batteries
3. Vinegar batteries
4. Potato batteries

We connected potato batteries to turn on a light bulb. Unfortunately we didn't get it to light up. According to the voltmeter we produced 2.5 volts, which should be enough to light up the light. 

Series & Parallel Circuits

March 13th

The students made two different types of circuits - Series circuits and Parallel circuits!

The students unscrewed one light bulb in each type of circuit and observed what happened.

Parallel Circuit 

Parallel Circuit with two batteries, with a switch 

The parallel circuits allow the bulbs to be much brighter because each one is individually connected to the battery. 

Conductors of Electricity / Using Switches

March 12th

The students were given a bag of stuff and had to classify the items as conductors or insulators of electricity. They made a simple circuit and placed the item in between to test it.


Switches

The picture above is an opened switch, so the light is turned off, because the circuit is broken. 

Exploring with Electrical Circuits

March 11th 

The students were given batteries, wires, and bulbs and were told to build circuits. They had the hour to explore and draw diagrams of the circuits they made.

Static Discharge

March 7th 

Static discharge is the release of static electricity when two objects come into contact. Objects are left neutral after a discharge.

We watched videos of different electrostatic generators.
1. Wimshurst Machine
2. Van de Graaff generator - We watched a video of the largest Van de Graaff generator in the world.

Then each group experienced static discharge (a shock) with an electrophorus. Each time you pick up the handle (styrofoam cup) with the pie pan, it re-builds up a charge. Each time you touch the pie pan, you get shocked again.

Static Electricity Lab

March 6th

Students designed a lab to explore static electricity. Some students changed the surfaces (independent variable) they stuck the balloon to and rubbed/charged each balloon with wool. They measured how long the balloon stuck (dependent variable).

Other students changed the different things they rubbed/charged the balloon with (independent variable) and placed them on the same surface. They also measured how long it stuck (dependent variable).

Static Electricity

On March 5th we were introduced to static electricity.  We watched how when there is a build up of electrons on an object such as a balloon, we can observe objects attract to it and repel from it.

 After rubbing the balloon with fleece, the little pieces of paper easily attracted to the balloon. The negative charge of the balloon and the positive charge of the paper attracted. Opposite charges attract!

In the picture below a student rubbed a balloon against his shirt. It then became negatively charged. The negative charges of the balloon are repelling the negative charges of the water molecules.