Explaining Electricity


Electricity can be easy to understand - if you choose the right starting point!

To make the science of electricity intuitive, you will begin with energy. From here, you can learn a fruitful model of simple electric circuits, developed from ground up.

This approach is highly pictorial: you will represent electric potential (Volts) and electric current (Amps) with simple diagrams. Then you can use these diagrams to analyze electric circuits. When the time comes to introduce algebra and equations, you will already have know something about V, I, R and P from your diagrams.

Parents and teachers, you get one half of the book! We provide solid pedagogical supports, recipes, and methods of presentation.Every Student Exercise has a corresponding Parent-Teacher Guide - to help you teach your own child about electricity. Using pencil-and-paper exercises, your student will develop a fruitful model of simple electric circuits. Every exercise uses meaningful and powerful  diagrams that work the way that kids actually think.  

Because this unit involves fundamental forces and concepts, it is placed first in the series of four strands. It should be taught before chemistry.

The Electricity unit is subdivided into four sections, approximately one week each.

  1. Static electricity and the electrical structure of matter
  2. Characteristics of electric current, and development of a model of current, potential, resistance and power
  3. Mathematical treatment of series and parallel circuits
  4. Projects that are either an application of the model or an extensions of the model.

At the end of sections 1 - 3 is a thorough quiz

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