1. Physics Videos:  Basics of Voltage and Current Laws
   
   If your students don’t quite get potential difference, they will after watching this video by electrical engineer Eugene Khutoryansky. It can be hard to understand how voltage is related to potential energy. It can be harder to understand that it’s the difference in voltage that determines the amount of current. The video is nicely animated, with both text and narration to meet different learner needs. The author also includes explanations of Kirchoff’s Voltage Law and Current Law. 
   
   
   
    
2. Physics Videos:  Battery Energy and Power
   
   This 3D video was developed to strengthen conceptual understanding of how charged particles flow in a very simple circuit that includes a battery, wire, and a lightbulb. The author compares potential energy to boxes (see screenshot) attached to the charged particles. It shows the role of the battery in pushing charged particles to higher potential. When the particles flow through the light bulb, the electric potential energy is converted into light and heat, resulting in electric potential difference (voltage drop). Finally, the particle movement is animated for both parallel and series circuits, which perform very differently. Note: This resource specifically addresses a common misconception among students that the battery is the source of charge (see “Misconceptions” section below).
   
   
   
    
3. Education Commons: Electric Current
   
   Possibility for a flipped lesson, this 14-minute video uses circuit board demos and animated circuit diagrams to explain what happens when current flows through two light bulbs in a circuit.  Explicit explanations of why the current flow is greater in one of the bulbs in the series should help dispel the misconception that “the current is used up”.  Good choice for students with disabilities, English Language Learners, or struggling readers.
   
   
   
    
4. How a Van de Graaff Generator Works
   
   This animated video takes a deep dive into the Van de Graaff generator, down to the movement of protons and electrons. The narrator explains that the generator works because the two rollers and the belt that circulates between them are made of different materials. As the roller comes into contact with, and is pulled apart from the rotating belt, a charge imbalance arises that facilitates the rest of the interaction. Teachers: For  Conceptual Physics classes, we recommend stopping the video at about 8 minutes. Students in AP or advanced classes may appreciate the background in the Tribolectric Series, Faraday Ice Pail effect, and the photoelectric effect. 

1. Nerve Science: Explore How Neurons Work
   
   This free resource was developed in 2016 by the American Association of Physics Teachers to engage students through a hands-on lab that integrates physics and biology. Students model signal transmission along an axon by sending a small electric current through a vinyl tube filled with salted gelatin. The lesson plan was inspired by “Bridging Physics and Biology Using Resistance and Axons”, an article in The Physics Teacher journal. It’s intended to provide a meaningful, real-world context for students to investigate electric current, factors affecting resistance, electric potential difference, and how electric signals are conducted through human nerve cells. Materials are readily obtainable; you will need a power source and voltmeter or multimeter. 
   
   
   
    

1. The Physics Classroom, The Laboratory, Sparky the Electrician Lab
   
   Students use a cell, wire and bulb to identify four different arrangements that lead to a lit bulb and use findings to make generalizations about what is required to have a circuit.
   
   
    
2. The Physics Classroom, The Laboratory, First to Light Lab
   
   Students make observations regarding lighting times for the individual bulbs in a two-bulb or three-bulb circuit.
   
   
    
3. The Physics Classroom, The Laboratory, Voltage-Current-Resistance Lab
   
   Students conduct a controlled experiment to determine the mathematical equation relating battery voltage, current, and resistance for a simple circuit.
   
   
    
4. The Physics Classroom, The Laboratory, Round vs. Oblong - the Greatest Resistance? Lab
   
   Students investigate the resistance of two different types of bulbs by placing them in two separate circuits with a control bulb.
   
   
    
5. The Physics Classroom, The Laboratory, Greatest Current Lab
   
   Students use a magnetic compass placed below a wire to investigate the relative current in various wires of a two- or three-bulb circuit.
    

Electrical Safety in the Lab

1. MIT Tech TV:  Inducing Dipoles with a Van de Graaff Generator
   
   This is one of the cooler videos we’ve seen! This short video from MIT promotes understanding of how a dipole is formed in the field of a Van de Graaff generator. The generator is negatively charged. When two oppositely-charged conducting balls are brought nearby (photo at left) the generator induces a positive charge on the close silver ball. The dipole will always align itself with the electric field. Now here’s some fun: MIT set up a system of three bells – the outer bells connected by a conducting rod and the inner bell is grounded (photo at right). Small metal balls are hung between each bell. The small balls are attracted to the outer bells, but the grounded inner bell causes an interaction within the electric field of the Van de Graaff generator -- and the bells ring.
   
   
   
   
    
2. MIT Tech TV: Conducting Glass
   
   Want a cool discrepant event? By high school, most students have learned that certain materials like metals are good conductors of electricity while other materials (like glass) are good insulators and inhibit the free flow of charge. But did you know that if you heat glass enough, it can become an ionic conductor – a solid that conducts electricity by the passage of ions. Ionic conduction is one mechanism of current.
   
   
   
   
    
3. MIT Tech TV: Temperature Effect on Resistance​
   We’re betting that your students are familiar with 3 factors that influence resistance in a conductor: the conductivity of the material, cross-sectional area, and length of the conductor. The fourth factor, temperature, seems to be less obvious to students because it it’s not as simple to test in the classroom. Generally, the higher the temperature, the higher the resistance. But at extremely low temperatures (see photo above), the resistance decreases, causing current to increase and the bulb to glow.  

• Middle School: Forces and Interactions – MS.PS2.B.1 Electric and magnetic (electromagnetic) forces can be attractive or repulsive, and their sizes depend on the magnitudes of the charges, currents, or magnetic strengths involved and on the distances between the interacting objects.  
• High School: Structure of Matter – HS-PS1.A.1  The structure and interactions of matter at the bulk scale are determined by electrical forces within and between atoms.  
• High School: Definitions of Energy – HS-PS3.A.4  “Electrical energy” may mean energy stored in a battery or energy transmitted by electric currents.
• High School: Energy Conservation  -- HS-PS3.D.1 Although energy cannot be destroyed, it can be converted to less useful forms—for example, to thermal energy in the surrounding environment.

• Crosscutting Concept #2:  Cause & Effect: Mechanism and Explanation – Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated.
• Crosscutting Concept #4:  Systems and System Models – Defining the system under study (specifying its boundaries and making explicit a model of that system) provides tools for understanding and testing ideas that are applicable through science and engineering.
• Crosscutting Concept #5:  Structure and Function – Structures can be designed to serve particular functions by taking into account properties of different materials, and how materials can be shaped and used.

• Develop and/or use multiple types of models to provide mechanistic accounts of phenomena
• Develop and/or use a computational model to generate data to support explanations, predict phenomena, and analyze systems.

• Plan and conduct an investigation individually and collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence…..and consider limitations on the precision of the data
• Collect data about a complex model or system to identify failure points or improve performance relative to criteria for success or other variables.

• Analyze data using tools, technologies, and/or models to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution.
• Analyze data to identify design features or characteristics of the components of a proposed system to optimize it relative to criteria for success.

• Make and defend a claim based on evidence about the natural world that reflects scientific knowledge and student-generated evidence.

• Create and/or revise a computational model or simulation of a phenomenon, designed device, process, or system.
• Use mathematical and/or algorithmic representations of phenomena or design solutions to describe and/or support claims and explanations.
• Apply techniques of algebra and functions to represent and solve scientific and engineering problems.

• Construct and revise an explanation based on valid and reliable evidence obtained from a variety of sources (including students’ own investigations, models, theories, simulations) and the assumption that theories and laws that describe the natural world operate today as they did in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

• Critically read scientific literature adapted for classroom use to determine the central ideas or conclusions and/or to obtain scientific and/or technical information to summarize complex evidence, concepts, processes, or information presented in a text.
• Gather, read, and evaluate scientific and/or technical information from multiple authoritative texts.