Download Electric Circuits

Electric Circuits
Lead students on fascinating investigations with light bulb
circuits and resistor circuits using this intuitive and easy-touse module. Students will discover and retain key concepts
such as Ohm's law, Kirchoff's laws, current, voltage, and
series and parallel circuits.
Next Generation Science Standards Connection
The investigations in this CPO Science Link module build conceptual understanding and skills for the following
NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-PS2-3. Ask questions about data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces.

MS-PS2-5. Conduct an investigation and evaluate the experimental design to provide evidence that fields exist between
objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact.

HS-PS2-5. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence that an electric current can produce a magnetic field and
that a changing magnetic field can produce an electric current.
HS-PS2-6. Communicate scientific and technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in the
functioning of designed materials.


HS-PS3-3. Design, build, and refine a device that works within given constraints to convert one form of energy into
another form of energy.
CPO Science Link Electric Circuits
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Electric Circuits
This CPO Science Link module includes 15-20 inquiry-based investigations.
Sample content and skills covered include the following:
Concept
Key Question
Learning Goals
Vocabulary
Level A Investigations
What is a circuit?
What is an electric
circuit?
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Voltage and Current
How are voltage
and current
measured in a
circuit?
• Measure voltage of a battery both in and out
of a circuit.
• Measure the current at different locations
in a circuit.
voltage, volts,
current, amps
Types of Circuits
What kinds of circuits
can you build?
• Build, describe, and identify a series circuit.
• Build, describe, and identify a parallel circuit.
• Build, describe, and identify AND & OR
circuits.
series circuit,
parallel circuit, AND
circuit, OR circuit
Analyzing Circuits
Why are the bulbs in a
2- bulb parallel circuit
brighter than the ones in
a 2-bulb series circuit?
• Build series and parallel circuits.
• Analyze the voltage and current at
different places in series and parallel
circuits.
• Explain why the bulbs wired in parallel
are brighter than the bulbs wired in
series.
parallel circuit,
series circuit,
voltage, current
Voltage
Why do charges
move through a
circuit?
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•
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Explain voltage.
Measure voltage with a digital multimeter.
Describe the role of a battery in a circuit.
Calculate the total voltage of several
batteries in series.
• Describe the transfer of energy in a circuit.
voltage, volt,
electric current,
digital multimeter
Current
How does current
move through a
circuit?
• Define current and explain its role in
an electric circuit.
• Measure current in amps with a
digital multimeter.
current, amps
Resistance
What is resistance and
how is it measured?
• Explain the role of resistance in an
electric circuit.
• Measure resistance in ohms with a
digital multimeter.
• Predict and describe what happens
when resistors are added in series to a
light bulb circuit.
resistance, ohms
electricity, circuit,
closed circuit,
open circuit,
electrical symbol,
circuit diagram,
conductor,
insulator
Build a simple circuit.
Diagram a simple circuit.
Explain how a switch works.
Identify open and closed circuits.
Test and identify conductors and insulators.
Level B Investigations
CPO Science Link Electric Circuits
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Concept
Key Question
Learning Goals
Vocabulary
Ohm’s Law
How are voltage,
current, and resistance
related?
• Describe how current changes
when resistance is increased.
• Describe how current changes when
voltage is increased.
• Describe how voltage, current, and
resistance are related.
• Explain why resistors are used in a circuit.
Ohm’s law,
resistor, variable
resistor,
potentiometer,
fixed resistor
Designing a Circuit
How do you design
and build and working
circuit?
• Use the engineering cycle to design a
working prototype.
• Test and refine a prototype.
• Describe energy transformations that occur
in a circuit
engineering cycle,
prototype,
constraint, criteria,
trade-off, energy,
energy
transformation,
electrical energy,
chemical energy,
radiant energy,
mechanical energy
Series Circuits
How do you use Ohm’s
law in series circuits?
• Calculate total resistance in series circuits.
• Build circuits with fixed and variable
resistors.
• Analyze series circuits using Ohm’s law.
• Use Kirchhoff’s voltage law to find the
voltage drop across a circuit component.
• Graph bulb resistance vs. current.
Ohm’s law,
resistance, series
circuit, resistor,
variable resistor,
potentiometer
Parallel Circuits
How do parallel
circuits work?
• Build circuits with fixed and variable
resistors.
• Compare current and voltage in series
and parallel circuits.
• Design a battery voltage test circuit.
Ohm’s law, series
circuit, parallel
circuit
Compound Circuits
How do you
analyze
compound
circuits?
• Calculate the total resistance of a
compound circuit.
• Calculate the current at various locations
in a compound circuit.
• Determine the voltage across each resistor
in a compound circuit.
• Measure the current and voltage
in a compound circuit.
compound circuit
Level C Investigations
CPO Science Link Electric Circuits
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