PHYS.6.D

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The student is expected to analyze, design, and construct series and parallel circuits using schematics and materials such as switches, wires, resistors, lightbulbs, batteries, voltmeters, and ammeters; and
1666 TEKS header image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Science concepts. The student knows the nature of forces in the physical world.

In elementary grades, students used circuit diagrams to model open and closed circuits. In high school, students are expected to use schematics to model circuits and their components. The top image shows an example of a circuit diagram while the bottom image shows the schematic for the same circuit.
 

Image of a circuit diagram and a schematic for a series circuit including a voltmeter, battery, ammeter, and resistor.
Image url: File:Circuit diagram – pictorial and schematic.png - Wikimedia Commons

a push or pull between two objects

a circuit with two or more branches where current divides and flows along separate paths before it combines again

a circuit with a single path along which the whole current flows through each component

Research

Baptista, Monica, and Iva Martins. "Effect of a STEM Approach on Students’ Cognitive Structures about Electrical Circuits." International Journal of STEM Education 10, no. 15 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-022-00393-5

Summary:  This study aims to know the effect of a STEM (Science–Technology–Engineering–Mathematics) approach on students’ cognitive structures about the topic of electrical circuits, as revealed through a Word Association Test (WAT). A study following a time series quasi-experimental research design was made to collect information about changes in students’ cognitive structures before and after a learning sequence about electrical circuits.

Research

Ivanjek, Lana, Louisa Morris, Thomas Schubatzky, Martin Hopf, Jan-Philipp Burde, Claudia Haagen-Schützenhöfer, Liza Dopatka, Verena Spatz, and Thomas Wilhelm. "Development of a Two-Tier Instrument on Simple Electric Circuits." Physical Review Physics Education Research 17, no. 2 (2021): 020123. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.020123

Summary:  This article reports the development of a two-tier simple electric circuits test (2T-SEC Test). Simple electric circuits are introduced to students early in their school years and are an important part of the physics curriculum all the way to the university level. The average difficulties of the main concepts regarding simple electric circuits (open and closed circuits, electric current, resistance, series and parallel circuits, and electrical voltage) were calculated and compared.