Live Exploration: Georgia Electricity

Developed by the Georgia Department of Education, this fifth grade instructional segment covers electricity and magnetism.

Learn how rubbing certain materials together causes electrical charges to build up on the surface of one of the objects and how that charge moves easily through conductors but not through insulators.

Explore circuits and conductivity using this SciGirls activity and conductive dough. You can use anything that conducts electricity to make an electrical circuit - copper, pencil lead, fruit, even play dough!

Follow electricity from its generation at a hydroelectric plant to your home, while learning some of the vocabulary about electricity. Discover some other sources of electricity, and why it is so dangerous.

Get step-by-step instructions on how to make a simple LED battery, and use this video to see a demonstration of how a five-cent LED battery works.

Explore how energy from the sun is collected in solar panels and travels to homes and businesses with the help of NV Energy.

Electricity is the flow of electrons. A visualization illustrates how metals are composed of an orderly arrangement of atoms with a sea of electrons that are able to move around. If a voltage is applied, electrons move from one atom to the next, producing electric current.

In this lesson plan, students model, build, and draw diagrams of electric circuits and test the conductivity of a variety of materials.

By the 1930s, cities had enjoyed electricity for decades. However, no power company was willing to foot the cost of running electric lines to isolated farm homes, and most farmers would not have been able to afford electricity anyway. The Rural Electrification Administration was created under the New Deal. It provided low-cost loans to groups of people (“cooperatives”). The people paid back the loans in their electric bills. A dramatic change accompanied this; electricity saved labor, increased production, and improved the quality of life.

Learn about the benefits and limitations of converting the sun's light and heat into electricity. Animations show how two solar power technologies—photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power systems—convert the sun's energy into electrical energy. 

Using the NOVA Energy Lab, students will explore the following topics: what energy is, how we can produce energy, and how we can use energy more efficiently. Students will also investigate alternative energies and how energy is stored and transported.  The research challenge allows students to use scientific data to design their own renewable energy plans for a real cities and compete with others to produce the most power.

What is energy? And why is it so important that we keep trying to get more, save it and make it more efficient? Watch this video to learn more about what energy is, where to find it, and how to use it.

Electricity is introduced with overviews of current and static electricity. This video then discusses electricity's place among the fundamental forces of the universe and discuss how it influences our daily lives.

Explore static electricity as you learn about charging by friction, conduction, and induction.

Current electricity is defined as we explore the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance. Ohm's law is introduced as well as the equation relating electric force and electric field.

It's time to talk about charge. What is charge? Is there a positive and negative charge? What do those things mean?

Investigate the concept of electrical power by examining our own energy usage with an energy audit. Multiple electric power equations are derived, exploring the relationship between electric power and Ohm's law.

The world power grid is one of the greatest examples of our interconnected world. Keeping the flow of energy stable remains an important part of modern society.