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The Website of Tom
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Software lesson presentation on Virtual Labs: Electricity |
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It All Goes
Somewhere Physics Lesson Plan by Tom Holloway Introduction: Virtual Labs: Electricity is an interactive software program that engages students by allowing simulation and exploration of various electrical circuits. Students choose a variety of components from a “parts list” and are free to construct circuits as their imagination guides them. Students can also be carefully guided through the use of more structured laboratory instructions combined with an extensive library of “pre-wired” circuits, which are student modifiable and can have their characteristics analyzed. This exercise is designed to be used within a physical science or physics curriculum during the current electricity unit at grade levels from 9 to 12. The use of a virtual program such as this one allows for increased engagement and reduced frustration over managing the lab with conventional components and instrumentation. It is also more precise, accurate, repeatable, and cheaper than the alternative of actual components while incorporating technology into the classroom curriculum. Objectives: Students will be able to: ü Create and modify circuits using the program. ü Open “pre-wired” circuits from within the lab. ü Monitor currents at various places within a circuit. ü Recognize the differences between series and parallel circuitry and how electric current flows, divides, and adds. ü Understand and interpret the conservation law as it applies to electrical current. ü Understand and predict the operation of circuit protection devices. Materials: Software: Virtual Labs: Electricity (Riverdeep Interactive Learning - www.riverdeep.net) Student lab handout entitled “It All Goes Somewhere©” (5 sheets following lesson plan – pages 87 to 91 of allowed reproducible material from Virtual Labs: Electricity manual) Computer Lab with projection system or Smartboard™ Lesson Sequence: This lesson is designed to be performed during one standard lab block of 90 minutes. q Students, working in pairs (to encourage collaboration), are given the assignment handouts and asked to log in and follow the instructor as the assignment is discussed on the lab projection system– 15 minutes. q Students are asked to initiate the built-in tour for themselves and are encouraged to view and listen to it twice for clarity – 5 minutes. q Students are given the bulk of the class time to work on the included five page handout and must answer all of the assessment questions put to them in the assignment – 60 minutes. q Instructor employs MBWA (management by walking around) and check for student progress and engagement while offering help as needed – ongoing. q Papers are collected and a brief closure summarizing the lesson is given after students log out of their computers– 10 minutes. Assessments: Papers are collected and assessed for understanding. The next class session is a debriefing of the previous day’s activities. Graded papers, with detailed comments, are returned to students prior to the commencement of the debriefing. Closure: The instructor reviews the theory of how electrical currents are conserved. "Whatever current flows into any given node of the circuit, must also flow out of it." The instructor also assesses the class response to the lesson format and software program ease of use. Supplemental
Reproducible Materials from Virtual Labs: Electricity follow: |
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©Tom Holloway | Last Revised on 01/24/2007 |
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