KWL

CURRICULUM TOPIC STUDY

K
 * What we think we Know about the content before CTS**

V = IR, I = dq/dt · Electrons move one way around the circuit, but current flows the opposite way. (Positive convention) · Needs to be an experiential component (with circuits) to learn current and electricity. · Students need to see current and circuits represented in a variety of ways, and the teacher needs to help students see the essential information in each of the representations. · This is a conceptually, but not (very) mathematically difficult relationship.

W / L
 * How are the ideas of electricity connected? (See ATLAS Vol.2, p. 26-27)
 * What background knowledge is necessary for students to understand current?
 * History of Positive Convention?
 * What motivates students to learn about electricity?
 * What are some of the real world applications? Non-gendered or co-gendered examples?
 * What connections can we make between current and the rest of the physics / science curriculum?
 * How do students think about electricity before they learn about it? Prior knowledge, intuitions, and misconceptions? Which ideas are most resistant to change?

- Difficulty understanding the relative strength of electrical forces compared to gravitational force. - Students from elementary school through high school have trouble understanding or applying the concept of a complete circuit (b/c plugged in objects don’t look like a circuit). - Students need to understand both how Resistance affects current and also how voltage affects current. – Important to emphasize which is the cause and which is the effect. * Resistant idea #1: “sequential” reasoning about current traveling in a circuit, students don’t understand that all the parts of a circuit are integrally connected. * Resistant idea #2: Battery is the source of current and the circuit is initially empty of the “stuff” that flows through the circuit.


 * What have they learned in chemistry that would help them out?
 * What is the enduring understanding/ big ideas necessary for students to learn (for future physics majors, for future science students, for general science literacy?)

- It’s important for students to understand that the electric and magnetic field exists in all space (the lines are just to show the direction of the field and the strength at that point). - Students need to understand the difference between electric current and electric energy. - Current is conserved around a circuit, energy is dissipated. - A battery does not produce a fixed amount of current. - relate macroscopic and microscopic properties of circuits. (Eg. how electric current relates to the forces between charged electrons). - Small current means low speed charge flow (or low volume of charges flowing), large current means high speed/ volume charge flow.


 * What are good lab activities vs. good demonstrations?
 * We should know more about resistors, capacitors, and voltage.
 * How does the content vary based on level?

L

Our topic covers: - CA Standards 5a and b - VA Standards ph.6c (Electric charge moves through circuits and is conserved)