Jack Jones

Lesson plan 2

Electricity and magnet make motion

‘to follow the labs and lectures on electric circuits and basic magnetic field introduction’

Length: 50 minutes

Objective: to develop the concepts of magnetic field and its creation and how it relates to current flow. Intended to lead into AC generation.

Supplies: for each student a battery, mounts, wire, lots of little compasses and a strong magnet.

Engagement

Review over the past lessons focusing mostly on magnetism. (3 minutes)

Show video of electric current carrying devices attracting and repelling, discuss why and what is occurring or if not available just use a wire and some small compasses. The students will be able to see the effects of the magnetic field created.(7 minutes)

Exploration

Students will make ‘little generators’

To do this they will put the battery in the mounts and build a spinning device out of wire and scrape the top off both leads and set it in the mounts. This makes the alternating current. Then when a magnet is held near and the device is spun a little, the magnet will keep it going. Once the motor is made the students will vary conditions like the direction of current or voltage applied and observe the effects using the compasses.(30 minutes)

Explanation

Students will have recorded their results and will prepare a short presentation of their findings for the class. This will be given as the engagement for the following day. (20 minutes)

Elaboration

After this we will have a hand generator that does the opposite of what they just did, use motion to create electricity. They can see how hard it gets to turn with a load on it and try to explain why this is. Then the class could tour a power plant to see the big generator and really get a sense of where their power comes from and what goes into making it.

Evaluation

The evaluation for all this will be done in the final project presention.