Electricity Basics
These negatively charged particles move through a circuit to create electric current.
What are electrons?
This component supplies electrical energy to a circuit.
What is a battery?
This heated tool is used to melt solder and join electronic parts.
What is a soldering iron?
This small circuit board acts like the “brain” of an electronic project.
What is an Arduino?
This electrical component spins the wheels of a small electric car.
What is a motor?
This word describes a material that allows electrical charge to move through it easily.
What is a conductor?
This component can open or close a circuit.
What is a switch?
This metal material melts to form an electrical connection between components.
What is solder?
Before uploading a program, you connect the Arduino to the computer using this.
What is a USB cable?
The straight rod connecting two wheels is called this.
What is an axle?
Rubber and plastic usually belong to this category because their electrons cannot move freely.
What are electrical insulators?
This component limits current and protects an LED from receiving too much electricity.
What is a resistor?
This tool is used to help keep components in place when soldering.
What is helping hands?
Buttons and sensors provide this type of information to an Arduino.
What are inputs?
A car will often curve instead of traveling straight when its wheels or axles are not properly this.
What is aligned?
This element can store energy in a circuit
What is a capacitor?
A circuit with only one pathway for current is called this. Example: When we tried to light up two LEDs the first time on the breadboard, it didn't work because the batteries couldn't power them in this formation.
What is a series circuit?
This tool is used to remove extra wire from the legs of a component after soldering and can take off extra insulation on the wires.
What is wire strippers?
Lights, buzzers, and motors controlled by an Arduino are examples of these.
What are outputs?
Reducing unnecessary weight and rubbing between moving parts helps a car travel farther by reducing this force.
What is friction?
A metal wire conducts electricity well, but a rubber-covered wire is safe to hold. Explain why the metal and rubber behave differently.
What is: the metal’s electrons are free to move and carry electrical charge, while the electrons in rubber are not free to move, making rubber an insulator?
In this type of circuit, electricity has multiple pathways, so one broken component may not stop all the others. Example: The second time we tried to power the LEDs using the battery it worked because they were in this formation.
What is a parallel circuit?
This is the reason that we use solder to connect metal components to one another.
What is solder has a lower melting point which the irons can reach than most other metals.
This reusable board allows components and wires to be connected without permanently soldering them together.
What is a breadboard?
A team’s car motor spins, but the car does not move. Name two possible engineering problems.
What are any two of the following: the wheels are slipping, the axle is stuck, the motor is not connected to the wheels, the battery is weak, wires are loose, the wheels touch the body, or the car is too heavy?