Hands-On Electricity: An Active Learning
Opportunity for High-School Physics
Mario Simoni
Steve Beeler
Glen Cook
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Science Department
Science Department
Rose-Hulman Institute of
Terre Haute North High School
Terre Haute South High School
Technology
Terre Haute, IN 47803
Terre Haute, IN 47802
Terre Haute, IN 47803
gmc2@vigoschools.org
smbeeler@gmail.com
simoni@rose-hulman.edu
engineering disciplines is increasing, enrollment in electrical
Abstract-This paper describes a STEM outreach program
for 9-12 grade physics courses. The goal of the program is to
provide students with hands-on technologically relevant learning
activities for concepts in electricity and magnetism. The three
parts of
this
program
include
providing
schools with
the
appropriate technology, training the teachers, and developing
and computer engineering is falling[3].
The work presented in this paper is an attempt to provide
high-school physics teachers with necessary resources and
training and the students with motivation and experience. This
outreach activity was inspired in part by the NASA Threads
relevant and sufficiently detailed lesson plans. This program
program, which provides an entire year's curriculum that is
began in the summer of 2011. Being at the beginning of a work in
based on the Boe-Bot platform[4]. In contrast, the program
progress, very few results are available so this paper describes
described in this paper is more flexible in that the activities can
the program itself and some of the lesson plans.
be integrated into any curriculum at any level and at the
appropriate time.
Keywords-STEM;
K-12
outreach;
physics
education;
electronic instrumentation; active learning;
In August of 2013, the program will be entering its third
year. It has supplied 9 Indiana high-schools with equipment for
performing technologically relevant hands-on activities related
INTRODUCTION
to electricity and magnetism. More importantly, the program is
Modem technology is starting to bring into common
providing continual teacher training and refining lesson plans,
language concepts such as LED lighting, low power electronics
which are both essential in order for the equipment to be used
for longer battery life, and electric vehicles. To interact
most
effectively with this modem world and solve future problems,
development and current state. Examples of lesson plans are
effectively.
This
paper
focuses
on
the
program's
students need to know at least some minimal level about this
provided. Some student outcomes and teacher responses are
technology.
included to provide a very preliminary sense of value and
Introduction
to
the
necessary
concepts
in
electricity and magnetism can come in the physical science
impact.
curriculum in high school. Unfortunately, even for those
students
that
do
choose
to
take
physics,
exposure
has
traditionally been very limited due to lack of resources and
expertise.
The United States is currently facing a crisis with regard to
high-school physics education and in particular with concepts
in electricity and magnetism. According to a 2010 report,
approximately 400 high-school physics teachers are hired each
year, but there is a need for over 1200[1]. As a result of this
need, only a third of the high-school physics teachers have a
major in physics or physics education, while two-thirds have
other
science
related
backgrounds
such
as
biology
and
chemistry. Another national survey showed that, while physics
teachers felt comfortable with Forces and Motion, they felt
much less qualified to teach concepts in electricity and modem
physics[2]. Due to lack of teacher training, most students have
very little, if any, hands-on experience with modem concepts
in electricity. Given the state at which modem technology is
advancing, students are very naIve about the field, meaning
that fewer people will enter the industry or related fields in
higher education. Data from the National Science Foundation
through
2008
indicates
that
while
enrollment
in
This work was supported by a grant from the Tellabs Foundation.
978-1-4673-5261-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
other
THE ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
Exposing
students
to
more
modem
technology
has
traditionally required complex equipment. In order to see time­
varying voltages it is necessary to have a function generator to
create and an oscilloscope to measure voltages. A variable
power
supply
provides
control
over
DC
voltages
while
supplying larger currents. One set of this equipment could cost
approximately $10,000-$20,000, which is well out of reach of
most
public
school
systems.
Fortunately,
cost-effective
portable electronic instrumentation solutions exist such as the
Digilent Analog Explorer system and the Analog Discovery
System. While these devices are not as accurate or powerful as
the more expensive equipment, they are more than sufficient
for simple experiments. In fact, many of these devices are
being used in undergraduate engineering courses.
These instrumentation systems provide varying levels and
numbers
of
power
supplies,
oscilloscope
channels,
and
function-generator outputs and are controlled by software that
runs on a Pc. The Digilent Analog Explorer device was chosen
for this STEM program because it has a built in prototyping
board, user friendly software, sufficient resources for complex
experiments, and the highest wattage power supply available
electricity and magnetism from college courses but did not feel
that could drive small motors and incandescent lamps. A
comfortable enough to go into detail in the classroom, and the
separate PC is required to control the instrumentation, but the
third had very limited experience with any technology. The
cost of a sufficient PC laptop is approximately $300. A single
three teachers were very willing to participate in the program,
complete instrumentation station that was used in this program
but requested as much training as possible in order to feel
cost approximately $600 and consisted of 1 laptop, 1 Digilent
comfortable teaching the concepts and using the equipment.
Electronics Explorer system, 1 DMM, and a parts kit. For
approximately $6000, a classroom for 20-30 students can be
supplied with 10 stations.
The teachers wanted to be able to understand and perform
much more complex experiments than what the students would
do.
Monthly
meetings
between
the
three
teachers
and
engineering faculty began in August before classes began and
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CURRENT PROGRAM
continued throughout the year. The Physics and AP Physics
During the development of this program some important
courses did not begin electricity and magnetism until the
issues arose that morphed the original idea into the final
spring, so there was time to develop confidence. Each of these
program. Through an odd turn of events, this program began
monthly meetings lasted approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. They
with funding that had no plan or proposal. The original plan
typically began with a discussion of a concept and the physics
was developed between Mario Simoni and Glenn Cook to
behind it, which then led to the construction and testing of a
work with teachers on an individual basis. This original plan
circuit on the instrumentation system. The teachers were able
focused on the Vigo County School Corporation because of its
to verify their understanding of the concepts and learn how to
vicinity
face-to-face
use the instrumentation under supervision. The discussion then
meetings between the engineering faculty and 6-12 grade
led into how these activities could be adapted for use in the
to
Rose-Hulman.
As
such,
regular
teachers were possible. The goal was to involve as many
high-school courses. Topics that were covered during these
middle- and high-school math and science teachers as were
meetings included voltage, current, Kirchoffs laws, time
interested in a week-long workshop that would demonstrate
constants,
how the technology could illustrate concepts from the state
transformers,
curriculum map. Because the equipment is so portable, this
amplifiers, frequency and waves, and oscillators
plan called for mobile sets of equipment that could be moved
between classrooms and schools for whichever teachers wanted
to use it. A proposal was written and submitted to the Tellabs
Foundation in order to keep the funding.
the
Vigo
County
school board was
types
diodes
and
of
capacitors,
LEDs,
inductors
transistors,
and
operational
The second year's goal was to involve other schools in
order to test the program with more varied conditions and
begin developing a community of experienced teachers. In the
summer of 2012, six additional high-school physics teachers
The proposal was accepted by the Tellabs Foundation, and,
eventually,
different
involved
from across the state of Indiana were invited to become part of
the program. Of the six teachers, two were chosen from large
because of the need for corporate wide participation of teachers
high-schools, two from medium-sized schools, and two from
and resources. The board saw several problems with this
smaller more rural schools. Each school was given a number of
original proposal. First, there were limited resources to move
stations according to the size of the school. The teachers
equipment between schools, and it was feared that equipment
participated in a 2 day workshop that was held at Rose-Hulman
would be lost or broken in the process. With a lack of clear
Institute
ownership they feared that the equipment would not be
teachers were introduced to the equipment and electronic
of
Technology.
During
the
workshop,
the
new
properly cared for. The equipment then had to be permanently
components; exposed to concepts in electricity and magnetism;
located at specific schools. Second, the 6 middle schools and 3
instructed on practical matters such as how to wind inductors
high-schools had to be treated equally, meaning that all 9
and soldering; and how to use operational amplifiers. During
schools had to receive the same amount of equipment. The
the evening, the teachers were given the opportunity to design
grant was insufficient to do that for 9 schools. It was decided
their own experiments using the equipment, and were able to
then to focus on just the 3 high-schools. Third, it was stated
generate 4 new experiments that had potential for lesson plans.
that there was no room in the math curriculum for teachers to
The workshop ended with a discussion about assessment, but
supplement with other activities. The math teachers had been
nothing tangible came of the discussion.
told on a daily basis what had to be covered in class and how to
cover it. It was decided then to focus on physical science
classes, for which there was only one teacher per high-school.
Fourth, because of the teacher union, it was required that we
pay the teachers at the standard rate for all meetings attended.
After the summer workshop, approximately monthly online
meetings were made available to all 9 teachers. These meetings
were met with varying levels of success and participation. One
challenge was that the software being used, Microsoft Lync,
had bugs and many teachers had firewall problems at their
During the first year of the grant, the 2 large high schools
school. Despite the difficulties, we still met 6 times during the
2000 students), North and South, were supplied with 10
academic year. Prior to each meeting the teachers were given a
experimental stations each and the smaller higher school, West,
circuit to build and test and during the meeting, the circuit and
(approximately 600 students) with 6 stations. Initial meetings
concepts were discussed and any problems or questions that
with the three teachers revealed a diverse set of backgrounds.
were
Two teachers had Physics Education degrees, but the third
permitted sharing of video feeds and computer screens among
received a physics teaching certificate from a summer course.
all participants, which greatly aided in debugging circuit
One teacher had previous experience with amateur radio and
problems or answering questions about the equipment.
(>
building circuits, another was familiar with basic concepts in
encountered
were
addressed.
The
Lync
software
an AC source is used to drive the LED, the directionality of
THE LESSON PLANS
There are several levels of physical science education in the
diodes can be discussed.
Indiana Public School system. At the most basic level is the
RESULTS AND IMPROVEMENTS
Integrated Chemistry and Physics (lCP) courses for students
who have little to no interest in entering science fields. The
next level up is the Physics course and then at the highest level
are the AP Physics courses. For the ICP and Physics courses
the required daily curriculum is provided by the state, but there
is a little more flexibility for the AP Physics courses to
augment the curriculum. The rigidity of this schedule means
that, especially for the lower level courses, any developed
lesson plans must apply directly to the state curriculum and not
cause the teachers to fall behind the lecture schedule.
There are already many online training materials and lesson
plans available for the Digilent systems. However, most of
these
materials
were
designed
with
the
undergraduate
engineering student and faculty member in mind and assume a
certain level of proficiency with the concepts and technology.
As such, while the actual lesson plans that were developed for
this program may be similar to the ones currently available, the
presentation must be altered significantly to account for the
audience. In order to prepare the students for the experiments,
it was found very helpful to provide them with a photocopy of
the breadboard so that they could draw the components on the
paper with the proper wiring. This paper could be collected and
graded prior to performing the experiment.
The equipment provided to the schools has been used in all
levels of the physical science courses. The simple light-bulb
experiment was done in an ICP course. The teacher reported
that many students became excited about the technology and
wanted to learn more. At the Physics and AP Physics level
students performed experiments with time constants and LEDs
in series and parallel. Other groups were able to measure
Plank's constant by looking at different colored LEDs.
Two key events stand out as somewhat measurable results.
At Terre Haute South High School, the average score on the
electricity and magnetism portion of the AP Physics test from
2007-2011 was 55%. In 2012, the first year of this program,
the average score was 72%. This is a single point of data and
there are many variables involved, but the verbal feedback
from the teachers indicated that this program did have some
impact. From Terre Haute North a student was able to use the
instrumentation for his science fair project to construct a pill
dispensing system. The following year this student enrolled at
Rose-Hulman as a mechanical engineer, but expressed a new­
found interest in a double major with electrical engineering.
Before
the
program
can
be
expanded
further,
some
important improvements need to be made. First, the two day
workshop needs to be expanded to a weeklong workshop.
While the online meetings help, many of the teachers still feel
insecure about using and experimenting with the technology.
The workshop should also occur closer to the start of the
school year, so that there isn't so much time to forget
everything that is presented. Second, each lesson plan needs to
have much more detail including the underlying physics.
Separate lesson plans with additional content need to be
provided for the teachers.
Ideas for assessment tools have been expressed, but still
need to be developed. Scores from the AP Physics test can
provide historical data and a measure of change. Quizzes and
surveys to be done prior to and after doing an experiment can
Fig. 1: Schematics associated with a lesson plan.
provide a better evaluation of individual lessons. Care must be
taken to not overload the students. Enrollment statistics from
One of the first experiments that was created consists of a
lamp, an LED, and a resistor as shown in Figure 1. In the first
part of the experiment, the students connect a single Christmas­
tree light bulb between the power supply and ground. The
the involved high schools could provide some measure of how
many
students
are
entering
undergraduate
electrical
engineering programs.
[1]
American Physical Society (2010). Report Synopsis from the
National
advantage of this equipment, is that students now have control
Task Force
over more variables. The students can vary the voltage while
http://www.ptec.org/items/detail.cfin?ID=9845. Accessed 4 April 2013.
measuring the current and see the results in real time. Then
[2]
Education
in Physics.
Avalable
with
support
for
NSF.
Available
at
http://www.horizon­
research. com/reports/ . Accessed 4 April 2013.
[3]
National
Science
Foundation,
National
Center
Engineering Statistics (NSFINCSES). (2008).
for
Science
[NSF
by changing the amplitude and frequency of the voltage. For
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/degreesl. Accessed 4 April 2013.
and resistor. When the same voltages are applied, the students
will measure a much lower current, showing that much less
energy is required to generate the same amount of light. When
[4]
11-3I6}
(tables)
Arlington,
and
S&E Degrees: /966-2008
to repeatedly turn on and off. Students can gain much intuition
more advanced classes, the lamp can be switched to an LED
at
Banilower, E.R. "2000 National Survey of Science and Mathematics
Inc.
crucial to high-school curriculum. In the second step, an AC
frequency sinusoidal voltage is applied so that the light is seen
Teacher
Edcuation: Status of High School Physics Teaching." Horizon Research,
they can record the data and plot the results, tasks which are
voltage can be connected to the function generator and a low­
on
VA.
Available
at
Tims, H.; Corbett, K.; Hall, D. ; Turner, G.; Harbour, D. , "Work in
progress - Application of the Boe-Bot in teaching KI2 electricity
fundamentals," Frontiers
pp.S2D-I,S2D-3,
in Education Conference (FIE), 20// ,
12-15
Oct.
20.