Bringing Auburn engineering to Auburn elementary
Thad Roppel, faculty member in Auburn University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a group of engineering students recently visited Wrights Mill Road Elementary School to teach a class of fourth grade students how to build electrical circuits using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and switches. The students’ goal was to make red, yellow and green LEDs light up and turn them on and off using different switches.
The elementary students learned the concept of a series circuit, in which an electrical current flows through each part of a circuit in sequence. LEDs lit up if the students connected their parts in order and their switch was closed. Students also learned about parallel circuits by making all their LEDs light up at the same time.
