This animated essay from the American Experience Web site explains the difference between alternating and direct electric current and offers in-depth explanations about the role played by a battery, light bulb, wire, and generator. Grades 6-12.

During this activity, students create a working radio by soldering circuit components supplied from an AM radio kit. Since this activity is carried out in conjunction with the associated lessons concerning circuits and how an AM radio works, students should be able to identify each circuit component they are soldering, as well as how their placement causes the radio to work. Besides reinforcing concepts from the lessons, this activity will also teach students how to solder. Soldering is an activity that many engineers perform regularly; by teaching students how to solder, they are able to engage in a real engineering activity.

Students learn how forces are used in the creation of art. They come to understand that it is not just bridge and airplane designers who are concerned about how forces interact with objects, but artists as well. As "paper engineers," students create their own mobiles and pop-up books, and identify and use the forces (air currents, gravity, hand movement) acting upon them.

In this simulation you will investigate relationships between voltage, resistance, and current that exists in an electric circuit. You will adjust voltage of the power source and resistance of the resistor and then use digital multimeter to obtain measurements. Then you will record these measurements and look for relationships that exist between voltage, resistance, and current.

Look inside a resistor to see how it works. Increase the battery voltage to make more electrons flow though the resistor. Increase the resistance to block the flow of electrons. Watch the current and resistor temperature change.

This lesson begins with a demonstration prompting students to consider how current generates a magnetic field and the direction of the field that is generated. Through formal lecture, students learn Biot-Savart's law in order to calculate, most simply, the magnetic field produced in the center of a circular current carrying loop. For applications, students find it is necessary to integrate the field produced over all small segments in an actual current carrying wire.

Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnet and experiment with ways to change its strength to pick up more paper clips. Students learn about ways that engineers use electromagnets in everyday applications.

Everyday we are surrounded by circuits that use "in parallel"and "in series" circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are composed of many simpler parallel and series circuits. During this activity, students build a simple series circuit and discover the properties associated with series circuits.

This new version of the CCK adds capacitors, inductors and AC voltage sources to your toolbox! Now you can graph the current and voltage as a function of time.

Build circuits with capacitors, inductors, resistors and AC or DC voltage sources, and inspect them using lab instruments such as voltmeters and ammeters.

An electronics kit in your computer! Build circuits with resistors, light bulbs, batteries, and switches. Take measurements with the realistic ammeter and voltmeter. View the circuit as a schematic diagram, or switch to a life-like view.

Students are introduced to several key concepts of electronic circuits. They learn about some of the physics behind circuits, the key components in a circuit and their pervasiveness in our homes and everyday lives. Students learn about Ohm's Law and how it is used to analyze circuits.

In the everyday electrical devices we use calculators, remote controls and cell phones a voltage source such as a battery is required to close the circuit and operate the device. In this hands-on activity, students use a battery, wires, small light bulb and a light bulb holder to learn the difference between an open circuit and a closed circuit, and understand that electric current only occurs in a closed circuit.

Students make a simple conductivity tester using a battery and light bulb. They learn the difference between conductors and insulators of electrical energy as they test a variety of materials for their ability to conduct electricity.

At the end of this unit: You can understand a newspaper commentary on current affairs. When performing this task: you have to distinguish different points of view. you have to identify the main arguments. you have to follow the line of reasoning.

The course covers the basic techniques for evaluating the maximum forces and loads over the life of a marine structure or vehicle, so as to be able to design its basic configuration. Loads and motions of small and large structures and their short-term and long-term statistics are studied in detail and many applications are presented in class and studied in homework and laboratory sessions. Issues related to seakeeping of ships are studied in detail. The basic equations and issues of maneuvering are introduced at the end of the course. Three laboratory sessions demonstrate the phenomena studied and provide experience with experimental methods and data processing.

Students investigate circuits and their components by building a basic thermostat. They learn why key parts are necessary for the circuit to function, and alter the circuit to optimize the thermostat temperature range. They also gain an awareness of how electrical engineers design circuits for the countless electronic products in our world.

You can give an account of a current event

An extended analogy comparing electricity to flowing water, to help students develop a more intuitive understanding of the components of electrical circuits.