Gretchen Brinza
Email me!
  • Home
  • About Me
  • School
    • Louisville Middle School >
      • 2022-2023
      • 2021-2022 >
        • 6th Grade: Contact Forces/Collisions!
        • 8th: Patterns in Space and Sky
        • 6th: Bath Bombs
        • 8th: Climate--The Warming Arctic
        • 8th: Hail, Rain & Snow
        • 6th: Cups
        • 8th: Tsunami-Natural Hazards
        • 6th: One-Way Mirror
        • 8th: Mt. Everest & Other Mtns
    • Sauganash >
      • 2020-2021 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • Data in Science
          • Human Impact (+/-)
          • The Dead Raccoon
          • Clean/Dirty Water
          • Opening Routines
        • 6th Grade >
          • Healing
          • A Changing Landscape
          • Keeping Things Hot or Cold!?!?!
          • One-Way Mirror
          • Dogs (Well and Unwell)!
          • Opening Routines
      • 2019-2020 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • The Sky
          • Dead Raccoon
          • All Things Water!
        • 6th Grade >
          • Sick Dog
          • Mt. Everest
          • Cups
    • Alcott >
      • 2018-2019 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • Patterns in the Sky
          • Roadkill--Dead Stuff
          • Down the Drain...
        • 6th Grade >
          • Chickens!
          • Sounds From a Distance
          • Sick Dogs
          • Spooky ________!
      • 2017-2018 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • The Mystery Sun
          • Roadkill
          • Clean/Dirty Water
        • 6th Grade >
          • Changing Populations
          • Smelling Lots of Stuff
          • Seeing and Light
      • 2016-2017 >
        • 6th Grade >
          • Can I Believe My Eyes?
          • How Can I Smell Things From a Distance?
          • Where Have All the Creatures Gone?
        • 5th Grade >
          • Unknown Chemicals' Identities?
          • Data
          • Water Transformations
          • The Raccoon Mystery
        • Technology Integration
      • 2015-2016 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • Opening Procedures
          • Chemical Tests
          • Earth's Systems Science
          • Data (Moon, Daylight, Temp., Constellations)
          • Ships in a Field
          • Patterns
        • 6th Grade >
          • Opening Procedures
          • World of Wonder Projects
          • Can I Believe My Eyes?
          • How Can I Smell From a Distance?
          • Where Have All the Creatures Gone?
    • STEM Magnet Academy >
      • A Glimpse Into My Classroom
      • Fifth Grade >
        • 5th Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Environmental Engineering (Part II)
          • Aerospace Engineering
      • Fourth Grade >
        • 4th Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Environmental Engineering
          • Waves and their Applications for Information Transfer
        • 4th Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Environmental Engineering
          • Transportation Engineering
          • Biomedical Engineering
        • 4th Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Environmental Engineering
          • Transportation Engineering
          • Biomedical Engineering
      • Third Grade >
        • 3rd Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Forces and Interactions
        • 3rd Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Electrical Engineering
          • Acoustical Engineering
          • Optical Engineering
        • 3rd Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Acoustical Engineering
          • Electrical Engineering
          • Optical Engineering
      • Second Grade >
        • 2nd Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Geotechnical Engineering
          • Matter and Its Interactions!
        • 2nd Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Geotechnical Engineering
          • Ocean Engineering
          • Packaging Engineering
        • 2nd Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Geotechnical Engineering
          • Civil Engineering
          • Ocean Engineering
      • First Grade >
        • 1st Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Optical Engineering
          • Sound
          • Plants--Structures and Processes
        • 1st Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Materials Engineering
          • Mechanical Engineering
          • Agricultural Engineering
        • 1st Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Mechanical Engineering
          • Materials Engineering
          • Agricultural Engineering
      • Kindergarten >
        • Engineers do what?
        • Forces and Interactions!
        • Earth and Human Activity
        • K: 2013-2014 >
          • Introduction to Engineering
          • Force and Motion
          • Fabric
        • K: 2012-2013 >
          • Introduction to Engineering
          • All About Fabric
          • Built By Nature
        • Check it out! >
          • Exciting News
          • National Engineers Week
          • Donations
          • Chicago Events
  • PAEMST
  • Other
    • STEM FAIR 2019
    • STEM Fair 2018
    • Tech-Class
    • Engineering Week
    • G.D.W.O.F.
    • MSU Urban STEM >
      • Summer Work >
        • Ultimate STEM
        • ImagineIT >
          • Phase 1
          • Phase 2
          • Phase 3
        • Deep Play
        • Quickfires
        • Reflections >
          • Summer
        • Cosmos
      • Fall Work >
        • Deep Play Group
        • ImagineIT >
          • Phase 4
          • Phase 5
          • Phase 6
      • Spring Work >
        • Leadership
        • ImagineIT

Electrical Engineering

Just think of all the ways in which electrical energy is transformed in your life each day.  Electrical engineers have truly impacted the way in which electricity is used, including helping to solve problems involved with electricity!

Home

9.  Refining Our Switch Models!

5/1/2013

 
To culminate our unit on electrical engineering, third graders have created models of their switches when in the ON and OFF position.  Check out some of their amazing models!!!

8.  Designing Switches!

4/15/2013

 
Picture
With limited materials (note cards, brass fasteners, aluminum foil, and paper clips), third graders are putting all their electrical engineering knowledge together in designing their own switches.  

They're digging deep into the engineering design process one design after the next.  Is one switch "better" than another?  Does it use less materials?  Is it more accurate?  Is it challenging to operate? 

The possibilities are ENDLESS!  Way to go third grade!!!

7. Evaluating Series and Parallel Circuits

4/2/2013

 
Third graders have had chances to build and test series and parallel circuits.  Engineers are always evaluating their work, which is exactly why third graders determined benefits and drawbacks of each type of circuit.  

6.  Series vs. Parallel Circuits!

3/20/2013

 
As we dig deeper into circuitry, third graders have quickly discovered the drawbacks of series circuits.  Every time a bulb is added to the circuit, the energy must be split between all the bulbs, making their lights dimmer.  When we untwist a bulb, we see how all the bulbs go out as we create a gap in the circuit.  Sometimes we need bright light, and when one person shuts out the lights in their room, we may not want the lights out in ours.  The solution...another type of circuit!

Using parallel lines in famous quadrilaterals, third graders began to see the connections between infamous shapes like squares, rectangles, and trapezoids to set up their parallel circuits.  The good news?  Parallel circuits create more than one path for the electricity to follow, and when one bulb is removed, the other stays lit!  How amazing!
Picture
Parallel circuit, two light bulbs. Bright light!

5.  Game card investigations...using what we know about insulators and conductors!

2/28/2013

 
Now that we know what insulators and conductors are, third graders developed game cards with questions, a correct answer, and incorrect answers.  Using their new found knowledge, they continued to gather evidence to support how insulators and conductors work in circuitry.  How amazing!  

4.  Insulators vs. Conductors?

2/21/2013

 
Picture
Which materials are conductors?  Which materials are insulators?  Third graders are testing a wide variety of materials to see which materials allow electricity to pass through them (conductors) and which do not (insulators).  They are using evidence from their tests to determine which materials are insulators and those that are conductors.

Here a third grader wanted to test if Mrs. Brinza's earrings were electrical conductors.  The evidence that they were???  The light bulb in the circuit lit up!

3. Creating and testing circuits!

2/12/2013

 
A path for the electricity to flow...check!
A battery to provide energy...check!
A load to receive and transform the energy...check!
Creating the circuit and getting it to transform electricity to light for the first time...PRICELESS!

Here 3rd graders are creating and testing circuits.  While they explore the basic set-up for a simple circuit, they will become circuitry experts before designing their own switches to turn the circuits on and off.  Why transform energy when we don't need to?

They will explore materials that are conductors and insulators, different arrangements of the pathways in a circuit (series and parallel), and different transformations of energy by using light bulbs, buzzers, and motors (light, sound, and mechanical energy).

2.  Energy Transformations

1/31/2013

 
With all the technology in our lives, much, but not all of it, transforms electricity into other forms of energy.  From our toasters to our cell phones, electricity can be transformed into thermal, light, sound, and mechanical energy.  Third graders sorted technologies based on their transformations of electrical energy.  

1.  Meet Emily!

1/21/2013

 
Picture
Like many of our third graders, Emily is not alone in "forgetting" to do her chores!  Out on her family's Australian station, she would rather be out riding her horse, Flash than filling up the sheep's water trough.  But one day, the trough runs dry and Emily gets in trouble!  There will be no more riding Flash until she shows her mother that s

Visiting with a family friend, Pete, who is an electrical engineer himself, Emily learns how Pete has rigged up an alarm to remind him when lunch is ready.  Emily decides that Pete's solution could easily be her solution, too.

Learning about conductors, circuitry, energy transformations, and schematic diagrams, Emily uses the engineering design process to create and improve her own alarm to remind her to do her chores!

    Mrs. Brinza

    I love what I do.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it. 

    Useful Links

    Using Electricity


    Circuits and Conductors


    Changing Circuits

    Circuit Construction Kit

    Electrolysis







    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly