Circuit Sense brings relevance and motivation to the topics being learned in science and math. It works admirably as primary level curriculum, and because of the generally low level of electronics knowledge of many, it extends easily into activities for intermediate and middle grades curriculum and older. More importantly it addresses one of the central problems of science and math teaching, abstract topics are too often presented too fast. Spending time with hands-on activities provides the critical time for ideas to sink in deeply. It enables the teacher to fix the often heard complaint of mile wide and inch deep curriculum. It does so in a way to bring enjoyment to the teacher and fun to the learner. The issue of attitudes is not trivial. Without this motivation, science knowledge dies. Teachers and learners become uncomfortable, giving it less attention than it deserves or avoiding it where ever possible. As science connects so deeply with every aspect of our lives and our increasingly technological future, science should easily be a topic that has every teacher and student jumping for science time to start.

Science Concepts

Circuit Sense allows the learner to apply science ideas and facts taught at many grade levels. It serves as a bridge between many science competencies and even more interesting applications of this knowledge. For some, deeper treatments and hands-on events are needed to explain these concepts. This is a list that one can check against the science topics taught at a particular grade level. These topics are explained in a wonderful and humorous way in the paperback titled Electricity and Magnetism (Robertson, 2005), from the Stop Faking It series. Teachers should look for and study the following topics taught at their grade level for knowledge and lesson plan ideas: electrons (attractive force, force and motion, electrically neutral, atoms, nucleus, protons, neutrons), static electricity, current electricity, conductors and nonconductors, electrical energy, electromagnetic induction, types of magnets, magnetic material, properties of magnets, magnetic fields, Earth's magnetic field, electrical safety, electric current, electromagnetism, generators, electromagnets, electric circuits, and electric current & potential difference.

To help teach additional concepts, NSTA makes a product of Sunburst Technology available called "Virtual Labs: Electricity" which enables computer screen simulations of different circuits. This is a must have teaching application that can be obtained by right clicking on this link and saving to the computer desktop where it is easy to find. For Windows computers, use: ftp://ftp.nsta.org/VLabsWin/Vlabs_Electricity_Setup.exe; during set up it will announce that it needs Windows 95, but if the install process is continued, it will run on Windows XP. For Mac users, ftp://ftp.nsta.org/VLabsMac/Vlabs_Electricty_DL.bin. Once downloaded, double click the file and follow the prompts to install it. Current versions of Virtual Labs can be purchased at Sunburst's site. It will be valuable in learning more about these ideas: electronic circuits, current electricity & ohms law, insulators, electric power, batteries.

Applying the Science to Circuit Sense

For those carrying out Circuit Sense activities and inventing extensions, this page will be used to display projects, products, lesson plans and other related items that you make available to me. One of the advantages of introducing engineering through electronics is that the material for months of activities can be placed inside a sandwich size plastic container, all of which fits handily in most student desks.

Electronics and electrical engineering are just two of many engineering fields to which children need wider exposure before they begin making choices among elective courses in higher grade levels which in turn has an impact on career choices. The general field of engineering has been defined as the practical application of science to commerce or industry (Hyperdictionary) and understand that the subject of art is included as well in the mention of commerce or industry. In order to do more with electronics and have it play a role in environmental investigation and other forms of integration with science and math and in other content areas in the classroom, you need a first step to take in understanding electricity and electronics. Directions to take in moving beyond these basic steps are also provided here.

Table of Contents

The Circuit Sense Chapters	A Sequence of Samples Activities from the Chapters
Part I - Getting a Handle on the Basics  1 Come Join the Circuits.......................1  Basic Sense: Electrons  Building a Four-Part Circuit  Make a Circuit Pattern  A Job to Do  The LED: Light-Emitting Diode  Adding Power to the Circuit  Making a Power Pack  Power Sense	Electricity is needed for so many things to work, and that includes computers. Electricity depends on electrons which are negatively charged and are attracted to positive charges or places where there is an absence of electrons.  An electron carries a very precise electrical charge (e.g.,  1.6*10-19 coulombs) and managed properly, can even be made to spin. Just when you think that this sounds like a fairly well understood phenomenon, study the nature of an electron a little deeper.  After more than a century, there are still very basic features of the electron that are not understood. For example, an electron has no radius and no known structure but has definite mass and can be made to spin. How is this possible? Visit the Electron Exhibition to find out much more.   Power Sense page.  Learn how to safely make powerpacks and find alternative power sources for engineering projects.
2 Getting It Under Control!...................10  Adding a Switch  Simple Circuit Sense  Circuit Logic	Click the circuit image below. In this picture, can you determine the four basic parts of a circuit: path, power, switch and job?    Unlabeled Circuit Click text or image to see an unlabeled circuit. Labeled Circuit Use this link, Circuit with Switch , to find the correct answers.  Make and Take Print out either the labeled or unlabeled circuit above. This may also be done in class, but if you would like to practice ahead of time, follow these directions. Use the simple circuit with switch construction page for directions on how to complete your own simple circuit with switch. We will be doing more advanced version of this in class. If you do create this before we come to it in class, bring it to our next class meeting.
3 Creating with Circuits.......................12  All Four Parts  Circuit Projects	Other activities will be covered when the class next meets.......
Part II - More Advanced Designs  4 Add Now!....................................16  Designing and Building an AND-Gate Circuit  Thinking AND  Don't Forget to Close the Gates!  Come In and Go Out! Input and Output  AND-Gate Sense	Click image for larger view.
5 This Way or That...........................25  Designing and Building an OR-Gate Logic Circuit  Building an OR-Gate Circuit  OR-Gate Sense  OR-Gate Applications	Click image for larger view.
6 Ready or Not...............................30  Designing and Building a NOT-Gate Circuit  Finish-Line Logic  Relay Sense  Build a NOT-Gate Circuit  NOT, Now!	Click image for larger view. Path. As circuits become more complex and the need for reliability increases, advantages appear for different kinds of paths upon which the electrons will travel. This sections shows pictures with commentary of this development. (See author of this page for the required password.)
Part III-Extra Goodies  7 Special Effects.............................36  8 Integrating Circuits........................47	Switch. See color pictures of different switches that can be inserted into the basic circuits described above for even more fun and effective projects. (See author of this page for the required password.) Job. Color pictures of different jobs that can be inserted into the basic circuits described above. (See author of this page for the required password.) See the Circuit Sense book for project ideas, directions and their explanation.
Part IV-Games  9 Logic Mazes................................51  10 Symbol Sense............................52	See the book for the Logic Maze games, plus basic circuit symbols and their names.

More Advanced Work

The knowledge from the Circuit Sense book can then be used in more advanced work that involve sensing and interacting with the real world. Here are some examples:
 
 

Pizza Alarm Box - (Big image)

Other

• Double-tilt Sensor
• Magnetic Field Sensor
  High Water Sensor

 Because the Circuit Sense material is commercially published, its full range of materials and activities will never be online but available through any bookstore. For those that explore this topic further, send me digital images, invented circuits and so forth, giving credit to their inventors so that I can display the projects of your classroom.

Reference points: Libraries Unlimited Ordering Information (updated November 15, 2003).

Beyond Circuit Sense

The software Virtual Labs: Electricity can be used in numerous ways to reinforce these hands-on Circuit Sense experiences. For further review of the circuit sense ideas, see these web sites: computers and logic circuits, computer technology, and semiconductors and integrated circuits.

Connecting The Computer to the Next Level of Engineering Compositions

Basic Stamp Kits allow newly designed components to be hooked to a personal computer.  Parallax web site provides a variety of these introductory electronics kits. The basic kit consists of a a chip on a small empty circuit board with connections for a 9 volt battery, a cable to hook the circuit board to the computer. It also comes with a manual (shown in the picture) and a diskette with the software that controls the chip.

 

The Missing Curriculum

This is an invitation to those with the electronics skills and the interest. There are some areas of the curriculum for engineering, math and science purposes that are still missing. Step-wise progression of curriculum beyond the basics discussed here is generally too difficult. That is, the learning curve becomes too steep too quickly for too many. There seems a hurry to reach a level of doing more complex projects which contributes to the lack of pursuit by those with an interest in these areas. Further, products and curriculum materials have yet to be produced and created which connect inexpensive sensors with web page display over the Internet using wireless technology. The exception to this would be webcams.

More work needs to be done in this area as well. If you are working on such development or are interested in building a project theme to carry ideas further, please contact me.