An Electrifying Week!

We have been challenged this week in the Physics 2 course to understand the answers to these fascinating questions through hands-on inquiry:

How does a battery work?
What does voltage have to do with a circuit?
How do you make a circuit?
What common household objects act as conductors and insulators?

Our first task was to visit a local electronics retail store to pick up low cost items to create simple circuits. I was eager to begin and found that it was fascinating to build different circuit pathways. I found success each time that the figurative light bulb literally lit up! It was fascinating reading other students' posts about the circuits that they were able to create. That is one of the many perks to an online learning community, you can share ideas and help each other reform your scientific thinking.

Our next task was to explore a circuit simulator to learn how voltage affects electron flow in a circuit. The simulator was very student friendly and easy to manipulate. It was a great demonstration of what happens in a circuit when the power source is high voltage.

Did you know that the metal top of a yellow number two pencil can act as a conductor? The last task for the week was to explore insulators and conductors at home. We were able to use a simple circuit to find household conductors and insulators. As a group we explored everything from lemons to cheese graters and we were truly intrigued by our results.