Electricity and Engineering Grades 4-6
Learning about electricity, renewable energy and circuits is much more fun when you work together to build your own power grid and electrify an entire city. In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to create circuits and then work as a team to design and build a beautifully lit city block.
materials
one GOBOX pro with LED light kits (for class of up to 30 students)
recycled cardboard for buildings (or opt for 1 cardboard refill per group with GOBOX PRO)
2 AAA batteries per group
crayons
one large sheet of paper, tarp, table cloth or other sheet good to be used as city floorplan
optional materials-
pipe cleaners
straws
assorted recycled materials from the home
What is electricity?
Electricity is a type of energy that can flow from one thing to another. It is a huge part of your everyday life. For starters, it keeps your home and school warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It is used to make lots of things in your home work like lights, the microwave and your hair dryer. Electricity is made from energy stored in materials and other natural sources. Some materials that store energy include coal, natural gas, nuclear and oil. Energy from renewable (or reusable) environmental sources includes solar, wind and falling water.Electricity is made, or converted from burning materials like coal, natural gas, and oil or from collecting power from other environmental sources like solar, wind and falling water. Here is a nice opportunity to discuss as a group what sources of electricity are used in your own community. Examples may include electric cars, gas powered cars, windmills or solar panels that are along highways or dams if there are any in your area.
Where does electricity come from?
Yes, it comes from a socket in the wall. But that’s not where it really comes from. Let's find out how it gets to your home to light up your room and run other things in your home.It starts with an energy source like wind and solar power. This energy is converted into electricity which means it can now flow along wires and ultimately travel to your home. Lets's follow the pathway from beginning to your home.
1. Let’s start with an energy source like solar power. This energy is converted into electricity by the solar panels like the ones you see on roofs. Once the energy is made into electricity, it can flow along metal wires. Any material that electricity can flow through is called a conductor. So the solar panel collects solar power and converts it to electricity, now travels along conductive wires from one place to another. When electricity has to travel a very long distance, it needs to be very strong or high voltage.
2. A transformer can make electricity stronger or weaker. So after electricity is made from solar or wind power, a transformer collects it and makes it stronger. That high voltage electricity is strong enough to travel long distances. It travels along all of those wires on electric poles through your town. (or these wires can be buried).
3. The electricity eventually reaches your street where the voltage way to strong for a house. The power has to be reduced or made weaker. Every street or property has its own transformer. While the first transformer made the electricity high voltage, this transformer now makes the power lower voltage. From there it travels through distribution lines into your home and into your wall. The holes in the wall socket connect to the wires that go from the street transformer into your home, through your wall and into the back of the socket in your wall. Now you’re plugged-in! Even though it is less strong or lower voltage, this is still very dangerous and should never be touched!!!
4. Insulators - Have you ever noticed that all electrical wires in your home are covered in plastic/rubber? Metal is a conductor, electricity can flow through it. Plastic is called an insulator, electricity cannot flow through it. So when you touch the plastic covered wire you will not get a shock. If you were to put uncovered metal into a socket, well you would get electrocuted! Sockets are VERY dangerous and can cause death. That’s why all sockets in a home should be covered with protectors.
Activity-
Use the image below as a guide to draw your own version of how electricity gets to your home
day 1 homework: review what we learned
1. create a collage from magazine, internet images or drawn of 5 sources of electricity you use in your home or community
2. learn these vocabulary words - electricity, transformer, voltage, circuit, conductor, battery, load
day 2 lesson: the simple electrical circuit
We know you are excited to power up your model. We are too. But first we need to review a few things about electricity so you hook it up right. So we’ll go over the basics.Electricity, as you know is a form of energy. It can flow like through conductive wires like we learned yesterday or it can either be stored in one place like in a battery. When it stays in one place, it is called static electricity and when it flows it is called a current (sort of like water flowing in a river).For this activity, you will be making the electricity flow from the battery to the thing that you want to power up (a light) and then back to the battery. You will be creating a loop. Lets go over all of the parts of this loop, which is also called a circuit.
battery - energy source
conductors - materials that can carry the electricity from one place to another. In your kit, this is a wire. Metals are good conductors of electricity. Plastic, wood and rubber are not. They are called insulators.
Load = this is something that changes electric energy to another form of energy, like light, heat, sound or movement. Examples of loads would be a bulb (light), a motor (movement), a buzzer (sound) or an oven (heat).
Now just one really important thing before we get started. We will be using a special kind of light called an LED light. LED lights are a bit more complex. They are like a one way street, they only work when hooked up to the battery in one direction. Here’s how you have to do it.
FUN FACT: LED light bulbs are a new kind of light. They are better for the environment because they don’t get hot. Some other kinds of bulbs get hot and give off heat. That may be okay if your cold and want the room to get hot but if you really only want light, then some of the electricity is wasted on heat rather than light. Wasting electricity is bad for the environment. Other nice things about LED lights is that they work on very low voltage (so you can use then safely) and because they don't get hot, they are not likely to cause a fire - that is why most Christmas lights are now LED.
day 2 activity: create a simple circuit by lighting a structure
1. Divide students into 10 groups. Each group will be responsible for one building within the community. At least 2 groups should make homes and two should create towers that will ultimately become the power grids for the city. Other choices include but are not limited to
• school
• hospital
• stores
• police station
2. Have groups each practice creating a circuit with one LED light. Students should construct their building out of 3DuxDesign connectors and cardboard forms. They should determine where the light will be placed, remove that cardboard piece, poke small hole through cardboard with pencil and thread LED light through the hole. Have students split the + (longer) and - wires and run a small piece of electrical tape to the end of the cardboard piece. Students should test their light. They should now take some time to decorate their structure and then reconstruct it.
day 2 homework: Urban design and planning
day 3 discussion: review the plans
day 3 activity: construct the city
day 3 homework: research energy sources
standards reviewed
3DuxDesign wants to help keep kids connected. let us host a STEM With Friends Remote Playdate. Send each friend a kit and we will schedule a free design/build activity for you and 5-10 of your besties
Contact marci@3duxdesign.com for details
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