Explorations in Engineering: Count Your Blinkings

Lesson Abstract: In this lesson, students will become familiar with basic circuitry and the components involved in creating circuits. They will learn the concepts of electrical engineering, such as the relationship between resistance, current, and voltage, and how electricity flows through a circuit. In the end, students will create their own circuits using capacitors, resistors, diodes, and counter chips.

Objective: Use computational modeling techniques and hands-on methodology to learn the foundations of electrical engineering (DC circuits and Ohm's Law) and build basic circuits on breadboards.

Materials - Middle School:
Each student will need:

1 555 timer
1 9V Battery
1 Battery Snap
1 Short Breadboard
3 10k Ohm Resistors
1 LED (more recommended, in case of burnout)
1 10μF electrolytic capacitor
1 100μF electrolytic capacitor
1 plastic bag
5 wires (Recommended colors: 1 red, 2 black, 2 other colors)
A printout of: Middle School Handout
Computers with JavaScript or Java enabled
Web browser connection to the Circuit Activity

Materials - High School:
Each student will need:

1 555 timer
1 74393 counter (or other 4-bit ripple counter)
1 Battery
1 Battery Snap
1 Long Breadboard
6 10k Ohm Resistors
1 250 Ohm Resistors
4 LEDs (more recommended, in case of burnout)
2 10μF electrolytic capacitor
1 100μF electrolytic capacitor
1 5.1V 1W Zener Diode (type: 1N4733A)
1 plastic bag
20 wires (Recommended colors: 2 red, 8 black, 10 other colors)
A printout of: High School Handout
Computers with JavaScript or Java enabled
Web browser connection to the Circuit Activity

Supplement for this web lesson, there are PowerPoint slides available:

To the Web Lesson!

Student Handouts
(Printable Copies)

Student Handouts
(Online Copies)