In todayâs workshop, students learned about electricity and circuits. They learned simple formulas like V=I*R and P=I*V, and many analogies were made to real world situations to introduce new concepts and terminology and units of measurements. They eventually built a simple circuit using a breadboard, battery, resistor, capacitor, wires, and LED.
However, before building a physical circuit, the students played around with an online circuit simulator applet. First, they built a circuit as a group, and then time was given to them so they could play around on their own. Through this applet they built circuits and learned the importance of resistors and capacitors and how they affect the LED and the entire circuit as a whole.
Students were able to make the LED blink and make it shine constantly with the use of the capacitor, but the process took awhile. Students were able to help each other and they used the applet and the sheet of paper with pertinent information on it as guides at times. Instructors walked around to help clarify and fix mistakes so that in the end all students had working circuits.