Label the Resistor

1. Lay your resistor on a piece of paper.
2. Circle and label the resistor.
3. Draw the symbol for the resistor next to the resistor.

STEM Connections

A resistor is used to resist the flow of electric current. Adding a resistor to an electrical circuit causes less electric current to flow than if the circuit did not have the resistor. The colored bands around a resistor indicates how much resistance it has. The resistance is measured in Ohms.

Resistor legs are bent

1. It’s ok for the legs of the resistor to be bent or reshaped.
2. Reshape as necessary, replace if it breaks (it’s reasonable for them to break after moving the legs around a bunch

1. Ask students what the key word is in “resistor”. They should all tell you, resist. So a resistor’s job is basically to resist the flow of electricity. We use a resistor so that we don’t burn out our LED. Have your students use their observation skills again on the resistor. Again, they should see that there are 2 wires, but this time the wires are the same length
2. Labelling the resistor allows the students to quickly identify which component is which. When you’re building your circuit later, having these components out and labelled allows you to quickly move through these steps