Teacher Resources
The Physics Classroom has been devoted to helping students, teachers, and classrooms since the 1990s. We are as passionate about that mission now as we have ever been. If you are a teacher of Physics or Physical Science, we encourage you to use our Video Tutorial with your students. And we also encourage you to consider the use of other resources on our website that coordinate with the video. We have listed a few below to help you get started.
Curriculum Corner, Electric Circuits Section
Our Curriculum Corner is composed of a collection of Think Sheets. Each one makes for a great component of any Lesson Plan. They work great for both independent practice exercises and cooperative group exercises. The following
Think Sheets are a good starting location:
Series Circuits
Parallel Circuits
Teacher Toolkits: Circuit Concepts
Try a Teacher Toolkit ... you might be very glad that you did. Each toolkit includes annotated links to vetted resources from across the web that we feel reliably support the specific topic. Give one of these a try:
Circuit Concepts ||
Series Circuits ||
Parallel Circuits
Physics Interactives, DC Circuit Builder
This simulation has loads of uses. We have five classroom-ready, easy-to-use exercises that accompany it. You might be interested in our
Conceptual Exploration activity.
This downloadable PDF from our Science Reasoning Center includes a reading passage followed by a collection of questions. The passage pertains to an experiment similar to the one described early in the video and the questions focus students' efforts on reasoning from data to appropriate conclusions.
Concept Builders, Electric Circuits section, Series vs. Parallel Circuits
This Concept Builder has three difficulty levels. The earliest difficulty level makes a great follow-up to the video. After additional learning, the remaining two levels will be suitable for practice. Combine it with a Task Tracker account and access records of student progress.
Physics Classroom Tutorial, Electric Circuits Chapter
The written tutorial on our website forms of the basis of our video tutorials. They are still a good reference, especially if students want quick access to information for review purposes. These two pages match the content of our video tutorial. Consider linking to them from your course page.
Circuit Symbols and Schematic Diagrams
Two Types of Connections