13.1 Circuits

Concept: 

You're at a music festival, hanging out in a lawn chair. But some knucklehead is blocking your view of the stage with his butt. You can't help but look at it: it's in your face. You notice that his flashlight's on! Do you tell him? The music is so loud. Maybe you tap him on the shoulder? Then, maybe he'll get annoyed with you and move. Or maybe you don't want to bother him because he's really digging this song and you respect that. But you don't want his battery to die. Or maybe you don't care? Is this like you to not care? Why is this man's phone battery suddenly your business? This is ruining the whole festival. Should you just move to avoid the whole thing? This image captures this awkward moment. 

"Your flashlight's on, Bro."

Process: 

I followed the steps from this YouTube Video on Canvas, since I missed class. After a few botched attempts based on reading various step-by-step guidelines, I finally got it down. From one of the articles, I did learn to test the LED (first image). The article lists it as Step 5, but I think that it should be the first. More on that later. That element of testing the LED was a critical step to learning how it worked (cathode vs. anode), which is really important for determining the position of the LED on the copper tape and the battery.

I think that if I were to teach this – especially to fourth graders – this would be the first step. 

I think that there's a lot of value in the basic, tactile nature of this test. It's gratifying when it works, and when it doesn't work, there's safety in that it's probably not because you're doing something wrong, it's that the equipment isn't working - either the LED is busted or the battery is drained. (I found a dead battery in the closet which required some troubleshooting right on the jump). It sets up the whole concept for learning how it works, which is negative (anode) on the positive side, and positive (cathode) on the negative side. And then, which ever side of the copper the anode lays on, has to cover or touch the positive side of the battery in order to work. And vice versa.

I was a bit wowed by the simplicity of making the LED light up, while not... electrocuting myself? 

Testing the LED.

I found the process of mapping out the copper tape a little challenging. I started by following one of the templates on Canvas, but again, since I missed class I really had no idea what I was doing. I used a lot of copper tape making different patterns that just didn't work. But the YouTube pattern worked! First iteration picture, including a failed bit - I think I used too much copper tape - and the battery wasn't receptive. In the second iteration, I used less copper at the top to attach to the battery. That seemed to do the trick.  

Failed attempt attached to the sheet.

BADA BING! Electricity! 

Success!