With the writing, as I had mentioned in yesterday's entry, it found it necessary to do a mini-lesson on run-on sentences. The reason is due to the fact that as I conferenced with individual students, a LOT of writing consisted of one long continuous sentence. In many instances, it took up an entire page. So, that is what I focused on along with reviewing that a paragraph is a group of sentences (usually 4-7) that share a common topic.
In science, students were introduced to the concept of series circuits. A series circuit is simply a circuit has more than one output, such as an LED. However, there is only one path. See the image at the left for a simple example of one.
What I did was to demonstrate it by hooking up two LED's . However, since each LED requires 3 volts (since I can't seem to locate my 1.5 volt LED's) I had to either hook up four AA batteries or one 6 volt lantern battery. I opted for the large 6 volt battery to make things simpler both for me and for the class. I once again found it necessary to demonstrate it by hooking it up and showing it via a document camera. I did add one more resistor to the circuit in the form of a switch so I could better control things. The switch also serves to help conserve battery power. Fortunately, the battery is rechargeable so that helps a lot.
Lastly, I added a third LED, and since each LED requires 3 volts, 6 volts was enough for the two. With the third, it required 9 volts to work completely. I tested it anyway. What happened was that two of the bulbs still lit up, putting out a weaker light while the middle bulb remained unlit. Because of the added resistance, the output on the two was weaker.
But, I added just a AA battery, which is 1.5 volts. Adding it to the 6 volt battery in the series circuit made it 7.5 volts. I turned the switch on and all three worked!