Introduction to Electricity

Introduction

Suppose that it is a hot summer night and there are big thunder clouds in the sky. The wind begins to blow. Suddenly there is a flash of lightning and a loud clap of thunder. The lights go off. What happens at your house when the electricity goes off? How many things will no longer operate? Can you play your favorite games, watch TV, cook, use the computer, keep warm, or tell time? What do you know about electricity? Have we always had the use of electricity? Are there other forms of energy that we can use?

Task

You will be finding out about energy in the 1740s and compare that with the use of energy today. To do this you will use internet web sites to discover information about electricity.

  • You will find out what happened when Ben Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm.
  • You will discover what homes were like in the 1740s. What kinds of energy did they have?
  • You will use websites to learn more information about energy.
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Process
  1. Go to web site http://energyquest.ca.gov/library/ben/index.html.  We will go through this website together.
  2. With a partner, you will do one of the following:
    • You are a child living in 1740. Tell how homes were heated, and how you cooked your food.  Create a poster explaining this.
    • You are a child of today. Make a list of as many things as you can that use electrical energy. Make a list on a poster.
    • You are a conservationist. Tell us how we can save energy on a poster.
Evaluation

Now you will be the teacher!
You will share with the class what you have found out. It will be important to have your ideas written down in sentence form so you don’t forget any important parts. Each person will need to participate in this report. We will talk about the differences between l740 and now.

 

Conclusion

When you have finished this work, you will have learned that electric energy is very important to us for all the things we do. It is also important that we learn to conserve whenever we can.

Other sites to visit to learn more about energy: