To introduce the concept of an electric circuit, we model one with our bodies

Time: 15-30 minutes

Summary:

Students and teachers form a circle and hold hands.

They pass the squeeze to represent the movement of electricity through a circuit.

Focus is given to the concepts of positive and negative.

Form a circle: (10-15 minutes)

Assign each child a role

• wires
• lights
• motors
• speakers

In addition, have one child perform the role of a battery.

Emphasize:

The battery is very important! It’s where electricity is stored. It gives power to the circuit.

Explain:

Each person’s LEFT hand represents their NEGATIVE side.

Each person’s RIGHT hand represents their POSITIVE side.

• for batteries:
  • electricity comes OUT of the NEGATIVE side
  • electricity goes IN to the POSITIVE side
• for all the other components of a circuit:
  • including:
    • wires
    • lights
    • motors
    • speakers
    • etc.
  • electricity goes IN to the NEGATIVE side
  • electricity comes OUT of the POSITIVE side

Ask the battery to begin passing the squeeze.

Each part of circuit is equally important; if any one disconnects, whole circuit stops.

• squeeze flows from left hand to right hand (like negative to positive)
• batteries are where squeeze starts and ends; since electricity flows FROM battery’s - end, battery people must face OUTWARDS while wires, lights etc face INWARDS
• squeezing in series
• break in circuit
• switch (ask 2 kids to connect, disconnect)
• short circuit
• hard vs soft squeezes: just as fast, but less current
• squeezing in parallel: a circle inside a circle

Recap: We started off by forming a human circuit, squeezing our right hands (the “positive” side) any time we felt a squeeze in our left hands (the “negative” side). We talked about how batteries send electricity out their negative side, while wires, lights, motor, speakers and other circuit components take electricity in their negative side. We activated our circuit in “series”, as one big circle, with each person doing something like making a noise when the electricity squeeze came to them. With two of us acting like batteries, we had double the electric current, so we made noises twice as loud! Then we made a “parallel” circuit, which works the way electric outlets in our house work, by forming two circuit loops of people that shared the same battery.