ENERGIZE ME

AN ELECTRICITY WEBQUEST

Introduction: So you have decided to try the most electrifying challenge of your life, the chance to win the world famous ENERGIZER AWARD. Well, it's time to plug in and learn everything you can about electricity so that you can shock the judges and your competition.

The Task: In order to win the ENERGIZER AWARD, you must put together a presentation for the judges to assess. The presentation must include the following:

A power point presentation that addresses the following questions: a. What is current electricity? How does it work (include information about circuits)? Why do we need it? b. What is static electricity? How does it work? Why is it important to understand it? c. What are the dangers of current and static electricity? d. Describe safety procedures for dealing with current and static electricity.

Research and present an experiment for either current or static electricity.

Design a poster presenting one safety rule for either current or static electricity.

Process:

1. First you will need to power up on the information required to complete your given task. Explore the following sites to learn about the topics listed above. Take notes as you conduct your research.

*Get a surge of information about current electricity and circuits from these sites:

*Charge into the following sites to learn about static electricity and you'll have a hair-raising experience:

http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/static.html

http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/jakesattic/lab/electricity.html

http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/frankenstein/static.html

*Don't get zapped by electricity, learn about the safety procedures at the following website:

http://aep.electricuniverse.com/html/eu/education/louie/index.html

http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/frankenstein/safety.html

2. Next look at the following sites and choose one experiment covering the topic of current or static electricity to use with your presentation. Your teacher must approve the experiment that you choose.

http://aep.electricuniverse.com/html/eu/education/louie/sh/human/exp/index.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/iconelectricity.html

http://www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/620/electricity_activities.html

http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/MoreExperimentsSortCategory.htm#Atomic / Electric

http://www.halcyon.com/sciclub/kidproj1.html

3. Finally, use the information that you have gathered to prepare a power point presentation (your teacher has a copy of directions if needed) and a poster for the judges to view. Your presentation must address the questions listed under "the task" section. Please see the evaluation rubric.

Conclusion: The contest has come to a close and all of the competitors have made their presentations to the judges. To your surprise the award is being presented by non other than Bill Nye the Science Guy. As he steps up to the microphone, he turns and smiles…………And the Energizer Award goes to YOU!

Evaluation:
4	The student completes the power point presentation, poster and experiment. The presentation answers the 5 required questions from "the task" section. The poster explains one safety procedure and the experiment cover the concept of static or current electricity.
3	The student completes the power point presentation, poster and experiment. Presentation may only answer 3 of the 4 questions asked within the task. The presentation may lack some important details.
2	The student completes an electrical safety poster and conducts an experiment, but does not complete a power point presentation. OR The student completes a power point presentation but does not complete a poster or experiment. Project may lack details and important questions may not thoroughly be answered.
1	The student completes a poster or completes an experiment. The student does not attempt a power point presentation.
0	Student does not attempt any part of the presentation