Electric Circuits
Lesson 8
Making a Filament
Students use nichrome wire to create a model bulb with a filament.
3. Lesson Set-up and Management
4-5 PS3A Energy has many forms, such as heat, light, sound, motion, and electricity.
4-5 PS3B Energy can be transferred from one place to another.
4-5 PS3E Electrical energy in circuits can be changed to other forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, and motion. Electric circuits require a complete loop through conducting materials in which an electric current can pass.
4-5 INQF A scientific model is a simplified representations of an object, event, system, or process created to understand some aspect of the natural world. When learning from a model, it is important to realize that the model is not exactly the same as the thing being modeled.
- Students create a model bulb with a nichrome wire filament.
- Students examine and discuss the parts of the model bulb system.
3. Lesson Set-Up and Management
Materials:
- You can use tape instead of the modeling clay to secure the wires; this eliminates the challenge of having hands that touch clay not touch wire.
- If your spool of nichrome wire has been taped to secure it, check to make sure that there is no tape residue on the wire.
- Make a transparency of Figure 8-1 to show to students as a
reference.
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| Materials Center with the tape instead of clay | Set-up of filament with tape. | Lighting the filament |
Student Management:
- Students should wind the wire from bottom to top along the support wires; the space between the support wires should only be one-half inch.
- Have students prepare their science notebooks for observations by writing “I observed…” They can work on this as they finish.
- Have students add labels to the drawing of their device in Procedure step 5; they can also use this to identify the forms of energy in the system.
- Before beginning the lesson, make sure students are clear on the safety reminders.
- Pair students up carefully, as this activity can be tricky.
- If using the tape, demonstrate how to bend the wire into “L” shapes and tape down.
- Turn off or dim the lights to help students see the glowing filament.
- Collect the nichrome wire after the lesson and dispose of when students are not present; students have been known to dig the wire out of the garbage to use later.
- After completing the discussion in the Final Activities section, have students write the following in their notebooks: “The glass part of the light bulb is a(n)________, because_________.
- This is a good lesson to review energy transfer and transformation; have students finger trace the pathway of electric energy, and the transformation to heat and light energy.
Writing Support:
- Focus Question: What is the roll of the filament in a system?
- This is a good place to have students create a Box & T-Chart comparing and contrasting the nichrome wire and the insulated copper wire.
- Students can also record the energy transfers and transformations they see in the model bulb system.
Reading Support:
- The Thomas Edison Kids Discover magazine has an interesting section of the various types of filaments Edison tried before using the carbonized bamboo fiber filament.