Stimulating Understanding of Computational science through Collaboration, Exploration, Experiment, and Discovery for students with Hearing Impairments
a collaboration of the Shodor Education Foundation, Inc., Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf, Barton College, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and Interpreters, Inc.

For Teachers!

Ohm's Laws

Overview:

The students begin their study of circuits by constructing batteries from metals they find around the classroom and home. They use a voltmeter to compare their batteries to flashlight batteries. 

Using a computer model of a circuit board, the students will explore the relationship of resistance, voltage and current in series and parallel circuits. They will discover Ohm's Law by constructing series circuits with one resistor and putting the resultant resistance, current and voltage into a worksheet. Next, they need to discover how to apply their law to series circuits with multiple resistors and/or batteries. Finally, they propose a plan for applying their understanding of Ohm's Law to parallel circuits they construct.

Goals and objectives: 

This lesson addresses these National Science Education Standards:

5-8 grade: Electrical circuits provide a means of transferring electrical energy when heat, light, sound, and chemical changes are produced. 
Students in grades 5-8 can begin to differentiate between science and technology, although the distinction is not easy to make early in this level. One basis for understanding the similarities, differences, and relationships between science and technology should be experiences with design and problem solving in which students can further develop some of the abilities introduced in grades K-4. The understanding of technology can be developed by tasks in which students have to design something and also by studying technological products and systems.

Student Prerequisites: 

Students need to be familiar with the use of a computer mouse. They need to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Materials Needed: 

Voltmeter or multimeter, flashlight battery, insulated wire, paper towel soaked in salt water, several common metal items made of different kinds of metal, i.e. copper tubing, steel chair leg, aluminum chalk tray, gold ring, silver fork, lead sinker, brass door knocker. 

Computers with internet access or CD with this lesson.

Worksheet for Inquiry 1

Worksheets 2 and 3

The Circuit Builder is available online at: 

http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/circuitbuilder/intro.htm

This and other interactive physics materials are available at:

Developed by
The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

Copyright © 1999-2001 by The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.

This project is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Science Foundation.