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Thursday, December 10th, 2009

This week in Science we have discussed Electricity, including circuits and their parts, conductors and insulators, as well as reflection and refraction.

The students learned that a complete circuit consists of a source of energy, such as a battery or plug, a device, such as a lightbulb, or whatever is trying to be operated, and finally wires to connect the two. We include that circuits often contain a switch to make opening and closing the circuit easier, but that it is not a necessity. The learned that conductors are materials that allow heat and electricity to flow through them easily, such as most metals and water. We add to that the fact that insulators are materials that do not let heat and electricity flow easily, such as cloth, feathers/fur, wood, plastic and rubber.

Reflection is the bouncing back of light, such as our image in a mirror, or off of tinted widows i a car. It bounces back at the same angle, but opposite. Refraction is the bending of light. The refraction of light changes the way that the object looks. Refraction occurs when the light changes from one state of matter to another, such as through air to a glass of water, gas to liquid, etc. Items that refract light usually include some type of lens. Such as eyeglasses and contacts, cameras, telescopes, microscopes, magnifying glasses etc.

Wednesday in class the students received the following sheet and had to sort the pictures into two columns, one labeled conductors and one labeled insulators. There should have been eleven of each.