Teacher Guide: Advanced Circuits

Learning Objectives
Students will …
 Review how to calculate the current in series and parallel currents.
 Find the resistance and current throughout a complex circuit that contains components
that are both in series and parallel.
 Understand how a fuse limits the current that can flow through a circuit.

Vocabulary
circuit breaker, equivalent resistance, fuse, Ohm’s law, parallel circuit, series circuit

Lesson Overview
The Advanced Circuits Gizmo is a follow-up to the Circuits
Gizmo. In the Student Exploration for Circuits, students
learn how to use Ohm’s law to find the resistance and
current in series and parallel circuits. In Advanced Circuits,
students apply what they have learned to solve circuits that
contain both series and parallel elements, such as the one
shown at right. Students also will learn about the
usefulness of fuses in this activity.

The Student Exploration sheet contains two activities:

 Activity A – Students find the total resistance and current in complex circuits.
 Activity B – Students observe how fuses are used to break overloaded circuits.

Suggested Lesson Sequence

1. Pre-Gizmo activity: Circuits Gizmo ( 45 – 60 minutes)

Have your students do the Student Exploration sheet for the Circuits Gizmo. Be sure that
students are comfortable with Ohm’s law and can calculate the total resistance of a
series and a parallel circuit. If you like, have your students practice building real circuits.

2. Prior to using the Gizmo ( 10 – 15 minutes)

Before students are at the computers, pass out the Student Exploration sheets and ask
students to complete the Prior Knowledge Questions. Discuss student answers as a
class, but do not provide correct answers at this point. Afterwards, if possible, use a
projector to introduce the Gizmo and demonstrate its basic operations. Demonstrate how
to take a screenshot and paste the image into a blank document.

3. Gizmo activities ( 15 – 20 minutes per activity)

Assign students to computers. Students can work individually or in small groups. Ask
students to work through the activities in the Student Exploration using the Gizmo.
Alternatively, you can use a projector and do the Exploration as a teacher-led activity.

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 4. Discussion questions ( 15 – 30 minutes)
As students are working or just after they are done, discuss the following questions:
 How do you determine the resistance of a series circuit? Parallel circuit?
 What is the general method for finding the total resistance of a complex circuit?
 What is the purpose of fuses and circuit breakers?
 Why do you think circuit breakers, rather than fuses, are typically used in homes?

5. Follow-up activities ( variable)

After completing the Advanced Circuits activity, have each student design a complex
circuit on the Gizmo, paste an image of the circuit into a document, and print two copies
of the circuit. On the first copy, students should solve their own circuit, finding the total
resistance of the circuit. Students can exchange their second copy with other students,
challenging each other to solve their circuits. All answers can be checked using the
Advanced Circuits Gizmo.

As a follow-up to the fuse activity, have students build their own fuses. Materials you can
use for fuses include steel wool, Mylar, or Christmas-tree tinsel. Students can
experiment with a variety of batteries, resistors, and fuses and compare their fuses with
fuses found in common electronic devices such as calculators.

Students can practice building real circuits using the components you have available. If
possible, have students use multimeters to measure current, resistance, and voltage.
See the Selected Web Resources for helpful websites.

Scientific Background
Once students have learned how to determine the equivalent resistance of series and parallel
circuits, they are ready to tackle more complex circuits that contain both series and parallel
elements. The key to finding the equivalent resistance of a complicated circuit is to simplify the
circuit by finding the equivalent resistance of each component.

Consider the circuit shown at right,

which has two parallel branches. Each
branch contains resistors in series and
in parallel. Begin with the two smaller
parallel sections. The left section
contains a 15-ohm light bulb and a 20-
ohm resistor. Using the equivalent
resistance equation, we have:
1 1 1 4 3 7
    
RTotal 15 20 60 60 60

Thus, the equivalent resistance of this

section is 60/7 = 8.6 ohms. By a similar
calculation, the right section has an
equivalent resistance of 7.5 ohms.

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The circuit can now be reduced to the
equivalent circuit shown at right, with
8.6-ohm and 7.5-ohm resistors taking
the place of the two parallel sections.
The equivalent resistance of each
branch can simply be added up:
10 + 8.6 + 15 = 33.6 ohms
20 + 7.5 + 20 = 47.5 ohms
Finally, the equivalent resistance of the
whole circuit can be calculated:
1 1
  0.0298  0.0211  0.0509
33.6 47.5
1
 19.65 ohms
0.0509

Technology Connection: Fuses and circuit breakers

From the early days of electricity, it became clear that electrical circuits needed to be protected
from surges in current that could damage delicate components and start fires. A fuse is a thin
wire or flat piece of foil that is designed to melt when current surges, thus breaking the circuit
before any damage could be done. The first fuses were used in the 1850s and 1860s to protect
telegraph stations from lightning strikes. Fuses were first patented by Thomas Edison in 1890.
Today, fuses are used in a wide variety of applications including high-voltage power lines, cars,
and smaller electrical appliances.

Because fuses have to be replaced each time they melt, they can be inconvenient for circuits in
which current surges are common. Since the 1950s, fuses have been replaced in most
households by related devices called circuit breakers. First patented by Edison in 1879, circuit
breakers are electrical switches that are designed to trip (turn off) when the current exceeds a
certain level. This may be done by a bimetallic strip that bends as it heats up (due to current
flow), or by an electromagnet that pulls on a switch as current flows through it. Once the current
problem has been resolved, a circuit breaker can be reset to allow the circuit to function again.

Selected Web Resources

Circuits basics: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/index.html
Series and parallel circuits: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_5/1.html
Solving circuits: http://www.jabe.com/docs/Circuit_Teacher_notes.pdf,
http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e84/lectures/ch2/node2.html
Circuits activity: http://www.furryelephant.com/content/electricity/series-circuits/

Related Gizmos:
Circuits: http://www.explorelearning.com/gizmo/id?398
Circuit Builder: http://www.explorelearning.com/gizmo/id?638
Electromagnetic Induction: http://www.explorelearning.com/gizmo/id?1044

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