Electrical Circuits Project
Integrated Science-
2012-13 Woodrow Wilson Fellow-Stephanie Gribble
This week long project was a supplemental project for Gateway to Technology students at Canton City Schools-Lehman
Middle.
My eighth grade middle school students have been using a web application that helped them to explore series and parallel
circuits. We took time to review the history of electricity and circuits and have had some great discussions that the
students connected with very easily. Every student was fully engaged and I think they all have surprised themselves at how
much they actually learned about simple circuit design. The students were introduced to new vocabulary and symbols. All by
doing and student lead learning!
A
BIG “THANK
YOU” to Mark
Miller,
the assistant store manager @ The Home Depot Canton
for donating the necessary materials for our circuit
project during this week along with the expertise of
Master Electrician, Jim Kenny. Jim spent an afternoon
putting together a kit that would fit our project needs.
With the help of Home Depot, my collaborating teacher, Mr. Furno and I were able to put together an engaging project that
allowed the students at Lehman to build upon their knowledge of circuits and engage in the engineering design process. The
task for the project was to create a ping pong paddle that projected the ball across the net using only a small circuit
powered by a 6V battery. Vernier graphs are the extension to this project to track the movement of the ping pong ball. A
reflection on improvements in circuit design that changed the motion of the ball should follow.
This was a great project that proved to engage the students as learners and we will continue building up on what they have
learned as we move into automation and programming.