Simple Circuits Curriculum

This lesson engages students in thinking about resistance as a passive type of causality, and helps them to view resistance on a continuum between conductivity and insulation. There are similar lessons in many science programs to help students learn about the nature of resistance. However, this one is modified to offer systematic inquiry into variables that affect resistance and to help students understand the passive causality involved.

Section 4: Understanding Goals

Subject Matter

• On the continuum of insulators and conductors, some materials are "in between." With enough "push," or voltage, the electrons in a material flow along it, but it is difficult for them to do so.
• These materials are called resistors.
• Resistance can be thought of as an impediment to the flow of the current.

Causality

• Resistors are passive causal agents. For instance, a resistor passively causes a bulb in a circuit to light by making the path of the current more difficult. Because resistors are passive, people sometimes forget to think about them when assembling the causal story of a simple circuit.