Gretchen Brinza
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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!

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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!

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    Mrs. Brinza

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

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