Week 4: Currents
This week’s lesson takes us on a learning journey through currents. Let’s explore how these three topics above are all linked.
Let’s Begin…
What do these three topics have in common?
Take a few minutes and think about how these three topics are linked then discuss with your group.
Hopefully you came up with the idea that these topics all deal with power, or energy.
Current events tell us about what is going on around the world; these topics are powerful ideas or hot topics for discussion. It’s what drives us currently. Whether it is about politics, entertainment, technology, or science, we are always watching the news to find what is happening now around the world.
Ocean currents can be extremely powerful; they can turn over boats, destroy houses close to the ocean shore, and cause plenty of erosion. Some of these currents have a lot of potential energy that can cause a lot of damage or just carry garbage or debris all over the place and pollute our oceans.
Electrical Current is the flowing of the electrons or the electricity in motion. Current is the amount of electrons that can flow through certain material. The electrical current is measured in Amperes or AMPS.
The electrical wire is a conductor and it allows the electricity to pass through it. When the current flows through the wire it creates heat which is energy. Therefore the more current or AMPS, the more heat is associated with the wire.
Resources:
Making a connection – GOING EXTREME
We know that electricity gives energy to power our homes, and cities. We covered recycling in lesson 3 and learned all about alternative energy. Let’s focus on electricity and how countries around the world are finding really extreme and outrageous ways to generate electricity.
Start off by reading the article YOU JUST WONT BELIEVE THIS! See how extreme you can be and find the most outrageous ways countries, cities, or towns around the world are converting junk into electricity.
SOLVE THIS
Is it possible to use ocean current to provide us with electricity? According to BOEM (Beaureau of Ocean Energy Management)
The relatively constant flow of ocean currents carries large amounts of water across the earth’s oceans. Technologies are being developed so that energy that can be extracted from ocean currents and converted to usable power. Read this article Ocean Current Energy , and see what is been done to harness the energy from the ocean currents. What are some of the barriers? What has been accomplished? See if you can solve what needs to be done to make this all happen.
Writing: LET’S GET CURRENT
- Find a current event that deals with CURRENTS, or any topic discussed in this lesson. Please don’t use a current event listed in the resource list.
- Summarize the problem, the solution, and steps taken to fix the problem. If there is no solution write down what you think could be the solution.
- If there is a student with an article and no solution, consider having a discussion about it.
BEST Connection:
Look at your BEST kit and determine the size of the battery in Volts, the rating of the wire used, how much current is flowing through the wires to the motors and servos.
Community Connection: THE POWER GRID
- What is the POWER GRID? Most cities have several choices to make when choosing an electrical company. What choices do you have in your community? Find the electrical companies and see how they contribute to the power grid and what impact do they have on our economy.
- Is the power grid successful, or is it ancient? Are people trying to find a solution to improve it?
Bloom’s Taxonomy: add, create, explore, evaluate, generate, include, identify, list, observe, reflect, review, subdivide, use, and write
Workforce Skills: critical thinking, materials evaluation, reading comprehension, science, writing
My Personal Journal