Basic Electricity Worksheet

Discuss with your students the importance of this fact: that electrons may be added to or taken from an atom rather easily, but that protons (and neutrons for that matter) are very tightly “bound” within an atom. What might atoms behave like if their protons were not so tightly bound as they are?

We know what happens to the electrons of some atoms when substances are rubbed together. What might happen to those substances if protons were not as tightly bound together as they are?

While it is easy enough for students to look up definitions for these words from any number of references, it is important that they be able to cast them into their own words. Remembering a definition is not the same as really understanding it, and if a student is unable to describe the meaning of a term using their own words then they definitely do not understand it! It is also helpful to encourage students to give real-life examples of these terms.

This question is not as easy to answer as it may first appear. Certainly, electric current is defined as the “flow” of electrons, but how do electrons “flow” through a solid material such as copper? How does anything flow through a solid material, for that matter?

Many scientific disciplines challenge our “common sense” ideas of reality, including the seemingly solid nature of certain substances. One of the liberating aspects of scientific investigation is that it frees us from the limitations of direct sense perception. Through structured experimentation and rigorous thinking, we are able to “see” things that might otherwise be impossible to see. We certainly cannot see electrons with our eyes, but we can detect their presence with special equipment, measure their motion by inference from other effects, and prove empirically that they do in fact exist.

In this regard, scientific method is a tool for the expansion of human ability. Your students will begin to experience the thrill of “working with the invisible” as they explore electricity and electric circuits. It is your task as an instructor to foster and encourage this sense of wonder in your students’ work.