Triboelectric Charging - Directions

 

How it Works:

Using the Triboelectric Charging Concept Builder is quite simple. There are three different activities, each with a different emphasis. In each activity you will be presented with a question to answer or a task to complete. In the first activity - What's the Charge - you will be presented with information regarding the relative electron affinity of two different materials that are rubbed together. You must predict the charge that each material acquires as the result of being rubbed together. Click on the object (the red oval) to indicate the charge. There are three options - positive (+), negative (-) and neutral (o). Continued clicking upon the oval toggles through these three choices. You must also indicate how the objects become charge. Tapping on the space between the objects will generate transfer arrows that show the transfer of a particle (electron and/or proton) between the two objects. There are eight choices; continued tapping on the space between the two objects will toggle through these eight choices. Once you have completed these tasks (indicated the charges and picked a transfer arrow), a Check Answer button appears. Once you are satisfied with your answer, tap on the Check Answer button. Your answer will be evaluated and your Progress Report will be updated. 

In the second activity - Triboelectric Series - you will be presented with a chart referred to as a Triboelectric Series. You are told that an unknown material is rubbed with three (or four) of the materials on the chart. The charges acquired by the two rubbed objects is indicated. You must use the information to determine general area where the unknown materials should be placed. The three or four answer options are given. You select your answer by tapping on the option - either the words or the radio button to the left of the words. You can tap twice to deselect your answer or tap on a different answer to change your choice. Once you have selected an answer, a Check Answer button appears. If you are satisfied with your answer, tap on the Check Answer button. Your answer will be evaluated and your Progress Report will be updated. 

In the third activity - Rank the Materials - you will create a triboelectric series for three or four materials. You are provided information about generic materials A, B, C and D in the format of a Data Table. Each row of the table indicates how two of the three or four materials behave when rubbed together. You must use the information to determine the relative liking of each material for electrons. The material that likes electrons the most will be positioned highest on the triboelectric series. The material that likes electrons the least will be positioned lowest on the triboelectric series. There is a letter for each material located about the chart shown to the right of the question. You can drag and drop each letter to one of the rows on the table. If you change your mind, you can tap on that row and the letter will be removed. Once all letters have been dragged and dropped to a row, a Check Answer button appears. Once you are satisfied with your answers, tap on the Check Answer button. Your answer will be evaluated and your Progress Report will be updated. 

Your goal is to earn "Stars" and to complete one or more activities. Stars are earned when you show success on a particular question. Once you show success on all the questions for a particular activity, you will earn the Trophy for that level.
 

Earning Stars

When you start up any of the activities the number of questions for that activity are shown in the Progress Report area of the Concept Builder. You will notice that there is either a Yellow or a Red background for each question number. When starting up an activity, the background color is Yellow. Answering a "Yellow" question correctly earns you a star for that question number. However, answering it incorrectly turns the background color to Red. A question number with a Red background must be correctly answered twice (without a miss) in order to earn a star. 

 

Getting Help

You will notice that there is a Help Me button underneath the Progress Report. You should learn to use this feature of the program. It's how you can turn an exercise in answering questions into an exercise in learning. Tapping on the Help Me button will open a page with help that is specific to each question. Of course, the Help pages are only helpful if you read them. So take the time to read them. Each Help page contains four sections: a discussion of the Fundamentals, a display of the various Questions in the Question Group, a section titled "How to Think About This Situation", and a set of links to resources in our Tutorial section. You should pay attention to the sectoin titled How to Think About This Situation. You will find what you need to know in the two or three paragraphs in this section. You will also become a better Physics student for doing that. That is, after all, the goal of such an activity as Triboelectric Charging.
 

Thanks for being patient with the Directions. Happy learning!