'Science Alive' Field Trip

Margaret’s class at Beckenham has been studying electricity and they are creating a game that makes use of a simple circuit. I sure don’t remember learning about electricity in elementary school!!

Yesterday her class took a field trip to 'Science Alive' (a local science discovery museum) for some even more hands-on experience making temporary circuits and even constructing a project to bring home. The class was divided into pairs and each group was given an Electronics kit that enabled them to create simple circuits by connecting various components to a power source via metal “bridges.” It was a simple and straightforward way for them to add lights, buzzers, and even a switch to the circuit they made. After they had explored most of the simple circuits they could make, the instructor had them try making a parallel circuit. I think being able to arrange the pieces themselves let the kids get a better feel for what did and didn’t work. Interestingly, the instructor was originally from Massachusetts.


The take-home project was a small nightlight. Each child was given a kit with all of the necessary parts. They chose a picture and coloured it to attach to the outside of the nightlight. Then they built the rest of the housing and built the circuit to power the LED. The picture below shows Margaret with Alexandra and Theresa, two of her friends from school.