Circuit Activity

Instructor directions are listed below:

1. Explain to students that the best way for them to understand circuits is to create a human circuit with their classmates.
    
2. Arrange students in a large circle. Make sure each student is holding hands with both of their neighbors.
    
3. Prompt each student to hold hands or wrists with the students on either side. Make sure there is skin-to-skin contact between each student. Ask students to roll up their sleeves if needed. Tell them for this activity to work they need to continue holding hands or wrists unless explicitly told otherwise.
    
4. Ask students to share words they would use to describe what they just formed. Accept all responses.
    
5. Introduce the vocabulary word "circuit".
   • Scientists and engineers might use the word circuit to describe this circle of connected bodies. An electrical circuit is a pathway through which electric charge can flow. Scientists and engineers use the term electric current to describe the movement of electric charge through a loop. Circuits are always closed conductive paths. Electric current can move through human bodies and even through the skin. Since you are all touching your neighbors, electric current could flow around the entire circuit.
6. Introduce batteries and electric current. 
   • Batteries store energy. When you place a battery into an electrical circuit, the stored energy can cause an electric current to flow through the circuit. Batteries and other electronic devices are sometimes called power sources.
7. Introduce the UFO ball battery.
   • Show students the UFO ball battery and tell students this UFO ball contains a battery that can cause an electric current to flow through the circuit they have just created with their bodies. Tell students that the UFO ball also has lights that light up when electric current flows through it.
8. Bring students' attention to the metal pieces on the UFO ball and introduce positive and negative terminals. The UFO ball battery has two different metal-covered sides just like a battery. In batteries and other electronic devices, these are called terminals. The two terminals are called positive and negative terminals. Electric current flows through the electrical circuit from the positive side to the negative side of a power source.
    
9. Place the UFO ball battery between two students: choose two students and instruct them to stop holding hands, have one student hold one of the two metal sides of the UFO ball battery and have the other student hold the other metal side of the UFO ball battery. Be careful not to have these two students have any physical contact otherwise; they will complete the circuit on their own.
    
10. Give students a moment to observe the UFO ball lighting up. Make sure students continue to touch their neighbors or the UFO ball will stop lighting up.
     
11. Tell students why the UFO ball lights up.
    • The UFO ball only lights up if the stored energy from the battery causes an electric current to flow from one side of the UFO ball to the other through a complete circuit.
12. Starting on either side of the UFO ball battery, have the student next to the one holding the UFO ball release the hand of one of their neighbors and observe that the UFO ball stops working.
     
13. Ask students why they think the UFO ball stopped working. If necessary, remind students that an electric current flows through circuits and closed circuits have conductive paths from the positive and negative sides of a power source. Highlight that when the student stopped touching their neighbors, they break the circuit, and electric current could no longer flow from one side of the UFO ball to the other.
     
14. Allow each student individually to break the circuit. Make sure the rest of the students are holding hands or wrists with both of their neighbors. Continue through the circuit prompting one student at a time to stop touching their neighbors and observe how the UFO ball stops working. Re-form the circuit and move on to the next student until each student has had an opportunity to break the circuit.
     
15. Explain to students that when it is their turn to open the circuit, they can tap their neighbors' hands or try touching other parts of exposed skin such as forehead, leg, or ear.

At the Thinkabit Lab, students love the Human Circuit activity. It is a great way for them to experience electrical circuits by using their bodies.

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1. Prompt students to touch their neighbor's cheek, shoulder, hair, or braces.
    
2. Test whether electric current can flow through specific materials by having two students in the circuit not touch each other but hold onto the same material. You might consider testing a metal wire (make sure both students hold the metal ends), a length of coated cable (make sure both students hold the plastic coating), or a plastic straw. Explain to the students that materials through which electric current can flow are called conductors and materials through which electric current cannot flow are called insulators.
    
3. Provide examples of electrical current flowing through a circuit such as a light bulb when it lights up. Explain that when electric current flows through a circuit, you can place other components in the stream and electrical current will flow through them if it is a conductor. Emphasize that electric current flowing through a circuit is what causes light bulbs to light up, toast to toast, or some motors to move around. Communicate to students that they will be making an electrical circuit that will cause an LED to light up.
    
4. Ask students for other examples of outcomes that might be caused by electrical current flowing through a circuit.

View the implementation of the Human Circuit activity at the Thinkabit Lab on the Video tab.

Watch the Human Circuit Video