Science Fair Experiments That Win Awards - Project #12 - Electrical Conductors

Objective

This is one of those science fair experiments in which you will be testing different materials to find out which ones conduct electricity well.
 
Introduction

Electricity was known to exist since times when amber and fur was rubbed together by the ancient Greeks, resulting in the production of static electricity.

The first remarkable achievement in this field was by Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist, who developed the first circuit in 1800. He also showed that a circuit must be closed, or complete, in order for electricity to flow through it. Science fair experiments can be conducted using circuits that demonstrate this principle.

Volta's student, Georg Simon Ohm, made the next discovery in 1826. He observed that some materials did not allow electricity to pass through freely. In other words, they resisted the flowing of electricity through them. This resistance of a circuit is measured by a unit called ohms and is abbreviated by the Greek letter omega (?).

Some materials allow electricity to move through them whereas others do not allow it to move so well. Those materials which allow electricity to move through them are known as conductive materials. Those materials that resist the passage of electricity through them are called insulators. The resistance of conductive material is low whereas the resistance of insulators is high. In science fair experiments, we can use copper wire as a conductor and plastic coating as an insulator.

In this experiment different materials will be tested by you, to see whether they are insulators or conductors. You will figure out the same by attaching different materials to the circuit and making a note of how bright or dim the bulb is. You will be creating your own light bulb circuit for this purpose.
 
Materials

• paper clips, string, plastic, aluminum foil, rubber bands, etc...
• a battery (6V)
• 3 pieces of wire leads having alligator clips attached to both ends
• a light bulb (6V) with wires attached
• an insulating surface such as a chopping board that is flat

Procedure
  

1. Create the circuit for testing the materials.
2. Connect either terminals of the battery with wires. One end of the wire which is black should be attached to the (-) terminal and the free end to should be connected to the bulb lead.
3. One end of the red colored wire should be attached to the (+) terminal and the free end should be left as it is for various materials to be attached.
4. Attach the second lead of the bulb to one end of the yellow colored wire and leave the free end as it is for various materials to be attached to it.
5. Now, the red colored and the yellow colored wire will be having one free end each. This is where the testing materials will be connected.
6. In science fair experiments, data is always recorded. So draw a table with three columns to write the material type, the material source and the bulb brightness.
7. Now connect the first piece of material to the circuit.
8. Write down if the bulb lights up and how bright it is. Continue for all other materials.
9. You can attach an Ohm meter and write down the readings in the table.
10. Now make another table with three columns to write the names of conductors, poor conductors and insulators.

Note that when the bulb is bright, the material has high conductivity and low resistance, and should be written in the conductor column. When the bulb is dim, the material has low conductivity and goes in the poor conductor column. When the bulb does not light up, there is no conductivity and high resistance, and the material should be written in the insulator column. Now that you are excited about going ahead with this experiment, your next step would be to download a free copy of "Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects" from the link below right now.

If you're ready to get going with your own science project, your next step is to download a free copy of Easy Steps to Award-Winning Science Fair Projects.

Good luck!

About the Author
Aurora Lipper has been teaching science to kids for over 10 years. She is also a mechanical engineer, university instructor, pilot, astronomer and a real live rocket scientist (You should see the lab in her basement!) She has inspired thousands of kids with the fun and magic of science.

The Education Enigma

The Education Enigma is a book of essays pertaining to America's education system. The question Price poses is: What Happened to American Education? Price proclaims, "The simultaneous decline of American education and the language used by America's educators is a historical fact." Over the years I have done some research on this topic, in particular through editing and proofreading of college papers. I found this book very interesting and agree with much of what Price states.

The main crux of Price's essays deal with the failure of our teaching methods to actually teach children to read. He explains the difference between teaching children to read using whole word strategy and phonics, favoring phonics. According to Price, "When we examine education throughout the 20th century, we see a puzzling array of unproductive ideas. But no failure is as primal and destructive as the inability of American public schools to teach reading-the one essential skill."

Through his essays Price also touches on the subjects of math, history, science and art. In addition, he provides a history of the American education system along with its downward turn referring to it as the "dumbing down" of America. From John Dewey to Maria Montessori to Rudolf Flesch to Gilbert Highet, Price explains their philosophies and the affects on this country's education system. He concludes, specifically in regard to Dewey and his followers, "Make no mistake, this was a secret conspiracy."

Along with this Price argues an excellent point that I always disagreed with: children need to memorize facts and figures even if they can look the answers up, whether in a book or online. I always believed that as long as children were taught where and how to look up answers there is no need for state tests that cause stress for many of our children from fourth grade up. His comment toward this kind of theorizing is: "But will they? No, people usually muddle through with what they actually know in their heads." I do tend to agree with this point even though I still feel there is too much emphasis placed on state tests.

The Education Enigma is full of information and history pertaining to the American education system. Through some of the titles of his essays it's easy to see that Price has a sense of humor: Jay Leno: Educator of the Year; Phooey on John Dewey; and Educators are Best Understood as "Ignorance Engineers."

It is important to mention that Price is not hurling these jabs pertaining to the ineffectiveness of the school system at the teachers in the trenches. It is aimed at those in control of creating and enforcing inadequate teaching strategies. In Price's words, "When I speak of "educators," I never mean teachers. I mean that small group of managers at the top, with Ph.D.'s, who effectively control the public schools."

A final quote from this book that I especially liked: "...Another famous government report, A Nation at Risk (1983) concluded that our public schools seem to have been created by an enemy power. Exactly. An enemy that would want Americans to read feebly and count inaccurately."

About the author: Bruce Deitrick Price is a novelist, painter, poet and education activist. He graduated from Norfolk Academy and Princeton (with Honors in English Literature). Throughout his career, Price was writing about education. Aside from the arts, his main passion is Improve-Education.org. Price is a member of PEN and Mensa.

Karen Cioffi is a freelance writer; a reviewer for BookPleasures.com; and a co-moderator of a children's critique group. She is also the co-author of Day's End Lullaby, a lyrical and rhyming children's bedtime picture book. Her blogsite, Karen and Robyn - Writing for Children, at http://karenandrobyn.blogspot.com, offers two FREE ebooks on writing for children (A Children's Writer's Checklist, and Dealing With Writer's Stress). It also offers writing and marketing articles, as well as book reviews. In addition to this, it is a hosting site for VBT - Writers on the Move (a group of authors who cross-promote using a number of marketing strategies).

Karen is also on the team of DKV Writing 4 U at .com. Check out our Learn to Write page at: [http://dkvwriting4u.com/learn-to-write/] This site also offers a number of affordable and professional writing services.

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