Assembly Programs: Arcs and Sparks
Lights race and sparks zap along our high-voltage equipment as our presenters discuss the practical, safe, and fun uses of electricity.
How is electricity created and controlled? Learn the shocking truth about the nature of insulators, conductors, direct current and alternating current. Construct a model of how electrons move through a wire, take part in a hair-raising experience with a 125,000-volt electrostatic generator, and learn about the importance of using electricity safely.
“Arcs and Sparks” aligns with the following points of the Maryland State Voluntary Curriculum:
Skills and Processes
Grades 3, 4, 5
- Gather and question data from many different forms of scientific investigations which include…observing what things are like or what is happening somewhere…and doing experiments. Select and use appropriate tools…to augment observations of objects, events, and processes. (A.1b)
- Seek better reasons for believing something than "Everybody knows that..." or “I just know” and discount such reasons when given by others. Develop explanations using knowledge possessed and evidence from observations and investigations. Offer reasons for their findings and consider reasons suggested by others. Review different explanations for the same set of observations and make more observations to resolve the differences. (B.1abc)
- Identify factors that must be considered in any technological design- cost, safety, environmental impact, and what happens if the solution fails. (D.1c)
Grades 6, 7, 8:
- Design, analyze, or carry out simple investigations and formulate appropriate conclusions based on data obtained or provided. (A.1)
- Explain how different models can be used to represent the same thing. Choosing a useful model is one of the instances in which intuition and creativity come into play in science, mathematics, and engineering. Recognize that important contributions to the advancement of science, mathematics, and technology have been made by different kinds of people, cultures, at different times. (C.1eg)
Physics
Grade 4:
- Observe, describe, and compare materials that readily conduct heat and those that do not conduct heat very well. Classify materials as conductors and insulators based on how easily heat flows through them. (B.1bc)
- Recognize and describe the effects of static charges. Observe and describe how to produce static charges by friction between two surfaces. Observe the phenomena produced by the static charges (light, sound, feeling a shock, attracting lightweight materials over a distance without making contact). (C.1ab)
- Investigate and provide evidence that electricity requires a closed loop in order to produce measurable effects. Investigate and describe how to light a light bulb given a battery, wires, and light bulb. Observe, describe, and compare materials that readily conduct electricity and those that do not conduct electricity. Provide evidence from observations and investigations that electrical circuits require a complete loop through which electricity can pass. (C.2bde)
- Cite evidence supporting that forces can act on objects without touching them. Investigate and describe the effect that two magnets have on each other (like poles repel, opposite poles attract). Describe how to make a simple electromagnet. Cite examples showing that magnetic and electrical forces can act at a distance. (C.3afg)
Grade 6:
- Investigate and describe that some materials allow the quick, convenient, and safe transfer of electricity (conductors), while others prevent the transfer of electricity (insulators). (C.2c)
- Identify and describe magnetic fields and their relationship to electric current. Describe how the electromagnet demonstrates the relationship of magnetism and electricity. (C.3c)