Topics in Electronics for a Science Unit - Ajarn Forum

prkuehn · 11th May 2008, 16:33

I'll be teaching science this year to Mathayom 3 students in a bi-lingual English program. The scheme of work calls for units in Electricity and Electronics. I didn't have much trouble putting together a unit plan for Electricity, but I am having a little difficulty putting something together for the Electronics unit which will last about 10 weeks. I have thought about starting with a review of direct current electricity and then reviewing magnetism and alternating current electricity before getting into electronic components such as resistors, diodes, capacitors, and semi-conductor devices. It will really be a challenge talking about a.c. and d.c. circuits. How much time do you think should be spent trying to explain how a radio, television, computer, or telephone operates? I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has taught electricity or electronics to Mathayom 3 students and would like to hear your ideas. Thanks.

daneel · 11th May 2008, 16:41

Well, start by letting them make this:

6moons audio reviews: TentLabs DIY*CD Player

and then send the end product to me!

JamieP · 11th May 2008, 19:03

A crystal set radio is a must. Should be fun.

Hamster · 11th May 2008, 19:28

How many periods per week?

Does your school have textbooks or other resources? Which one(s)?

What is the state of your laboratory? What kind of equipment do you have?

How many labs do you expect to do over the course of the 10 weeks?

How many classes do you expect to be canceled during the 10 weeks?

kempos · 11th May 2008, 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamster

How many classes do you expect to be canceled during the 10 weeks?

Good question. You can assume that 20% of your 10-week course will be lost. Especially when you teach first periods (longer assemblies) or Mondays (compensation days).

wangsuda · 12th May 2008, 06:59

You could open with a simple science lab on electromagnets. This teaches the students about current flow and current strength. I've used this lab (Electromagnets.pdf) with success as an opener. Good luck!

prkuehn · 12th May 2008, 20:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamster

How many periods per week?

Does your school have textbooks or other resources? Which one(s)?

What is the state of your laboratory? What kind of equipment do you have?

How many labs do you expect to do over the course of the 10 weeks?

How many classes do you expect to be canceled during the 10 weeks?

The students don't have textbooks and all instructional material is copied from books and the internet before passing to the students. The school's library has some physical science textbooks published in Singapore and Hong Kong. They are mostly on the junior high (grade 7-9) in the U.S. level. I can't remember the names of the books. The class meets three 60 minute periods each week, and I have no idea how much class time will be lost in all. I probably will lose 2 weeks of instruction due to the government holidays in December and over the Christmas and New Year's holidays. The lab is fair, and there are basic electronic kits. If I can cover 5-10 labs over the course of the 10 weeks, I'll be doing very well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wangsuda

You could open with a simple science lab on electromagnets. This teaches the students about current flow and current strength. I've used this lab (Electromagnets.pdf) with success as an opener. Good luck!

Thank you very much for the lab on Electromagnets. I have downloaded it and it really looks cool. Do you know where I can find some other experiments related to electricity and/or electronics? Thanks again.

bet · 12th May 2008, 20:13

Quote:

Electricity
Understand the nature of an electric current and the concept of potential difference.
Recognise that current flows in conducting materials when there is a potential difference.
Assemble a circuit that has continuity.
Measure current and voltage through and across components.
Use current and voltage measurements to calculate resistance.
Understand and apply Ohm’s Law.
Describe the 3 common effects of an electric current (heating effect, magnetic effect and chemical effect).
Describe the main differences between DC and AC current used in the home
Calculate the power of an appliance and estimate the cost to run it.
Show an understanding of electrical safety in the home.
Electronics
Identify basic electronic components and understand their use.
Construct simple circuits using those components.
Show an awareness of new developments in electronics.
Understand the ways that circuit boards may be constructed.

Here are some learning outcomes that I use as per the BEC.

Re: Electronics practicals, I tend to go for the sort you find in hobby kit's. Transistor as an amplifier and switch, flip-flops, 555 timer chip and LM3909 driver chip etc

The simple ones that show how a component functions are best.

pumpuiyai · 12th May 2008, 22:05

Get some LEDs and logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, NOT) and show them how the circuit matches the mathematics truth tables for boolean algebra.

travel767 · 13th May 2008, 13:04

Hey Prkuehn,

I teach that same M3 electrical course in an EP and found an excellent textbook that has everything you need.

Electric Circuits Fundamentals - Floyd

(I tried posting the link the author's website but I'm not allowed to until I've made 15 posts)

It comes with a teacher's manual that has solutions to the homework questions as well as exams, a lab manual with experiments for every chapter, a teacher's CD with Power Point presentations, and a CD is included at the back of every textbook that has multisim files you can use if you have computers in the classroom or access to a computer lab. You can find the core multisim program at Pantip as well as many other circuit design programs that can be used for something as simple as making schematics for putting on exams or even designing your own labs.

I originally found that book at the Chula bookstore and it's available from the local Prentice Hall office. I'm not sure about your program, but the level of English in that book might be too advanced for your students because it's a university level book, but it covers everything in the Thai curriculum without using calculus. It was really difficult to find a textbook in English for that course because anything written specifically for that level can only be found in general Science texts which have only one or two small chapters on electricity and magnetism, and that's definitely not enough for a year long course. Most of the other texts I looked at are calculus based and way too advanced for M3.

Floyd also has a bunch of other electronics books you can easily find with a search on google.

If you need anything else just let me know.

prkuehn · 13th May 2008, 19:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by travel767

Hey Prkuehn,

I teach that same M3 electrical course in an EP and found an excellent textbook that has everything you need.

Electric Circuits Fundamentals - Floyd

(I tried posting the link the author's website but I'm not allowed to until I've made 15 posts)

It comes with a teacher's manual that has solutions to the homework questions as well as exams, a lab manual with experiments for every chapter, a teacher's CD with Power Point presentations, and a CD is included at the back of every textbook that has multisim files you can use if you have computers in the classroom or access to a computer lab. You can find the core multisim program at Pantip as well as many other circuit design programs that can be used for something as simple as making schematics for putting on exams or even designing your own labs.

I originally found that book at the Chula bookstore and it's available from the local Prentice Hall office. I'm not sure about your program, but the level of English in that book might be too advanced for your students because it's a university level book, but it covers everything in the Thai curriculum without using calculus. It was really difficult to find a textbook in English for that course because anything written specifically for that level can only be found in general Science texts which have only one or two small chapters on electricity and magnetism, and that's definitely not enough for a year long course. Most of the other texts I looked at are calculus based and way too advanced for M3.

Floyd also has a bunch of other electronics books you can easily find with a search on google.

If you need anything else just let me know.

travel 767, thank you very much for the information. I will definitely check the Floyd book out.

Hamster · 13th May 2008, 20:07

Another book you could check out is called Understanding Basic Electronics by Larry D. Wolfgang. It's a fairly simple text, well written, sample problems and suggested simple labs. Here's a link:

Amazon.com: Understanding Basic Electronics (Publication No. 159 of the Radio Amateur's Library): Larry D. Wolfgang: Books

If you have 3 hours per week for 8 weeks (includes the loss of 2 weeks) that is only 24 hours. If you do 6 labs that will only allow you 18 hours of instruction. Given that you will need to do pre-lab and post-lab instruction for about 30 minutes each you will use another hour per lab.

Now you are down to 12 hours of actual instruction. Included in this time you have lessons, problem-solving, in-class workshops, homework review, quizzes, and a unit test. Take away 1 period for the unit test and perhaps one more for quizzes and you are left with only 10 hours of instruction. That isn't really much time to cover all the topics you intend to cover.

I'd suggest mapping out a realistic outline and timeline for the unit and go from there.