Primary Studies Electricity

Earlier this month, the Primary classroom studied electricity. They talked about how electricity is generated, and travels through different parts of the power grid on its way to houses, schools, and other places. Electrical wires are generally the highest wires on the utility poles on your street, and are separated from the pole’s crossbar by a round ceramic insulator. Some areas will have two power lines, some will have three.

Each house also has a distribution transformer, which is the gray or white trash-can-shaped object attached to one of the utility poles in front of your house. The lines that serve your house come from this transformer, run across your yard, and enter your house at the gray service head (unless your wires run underground).

The cable from the service head passes through your electric meter and then into the breaker box, where it splits into circuits that feed the outlets in each room. If you have an unfinished basement, you may be able to show your child the wires supplying the outlet box inside the wall.

Children built two different electric circuits, one where they could turn a light on and off with a switch, and one where they could launch a small fan into the air. (Very exciting!)

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