How to Build a Circuit

1.  Materials for building a circuit 

2.  Place a D-cell  in a battery holder. Attach bell wire to battery.

3.  Attach bulb holder to bell wire.

4.  Attach a 2nd battery for more power.

5.  Connect the bell wire to the clip on the battery holder.

6.  Find ways to complete the circuit. 

7.  Series circuit power goes around in one way.  It just has one pathway for the electricity to flow.  Attach bell wire to light bulb holder.

Series Circuit

A series circuit flows in one pathway.  The circuit can be built in any shape and not just a circle.  If you remove one of the materials, the circuit is no longer a closed circuit.  We think constructing the series circuit helped us to learn about a simple electrical circuit.
Examples include:

• electric hole puncher
• overhead projector
• electronic train set

You could find a series circuit in a one room cabin.  A generator could be the source of power to turn on a switch for light, heat, and refrigeration for food.

Parallel Circuit

A parallel circuit is a circuit that has more than one path to go through.  If you unscrewed one light in the circuit, the remaining lights would still work. A parallel circuit does not have to work with just light, it can work to produce sound, like a doorbell.    We think the parallel circuit helped us to understand a more complicated electrical circuit and has practically unlimited uses in our lives. The uses are limited only by our needs, imaginations, and technology.
Examples include:

• lights in our school
• anything plugged into the outlets in our school
• lights, appliances, video games, televisions, in our family homes
• hair dryer
• street lights in our neighborhood that come on automatically

Christmas lights can be a series circuit or a parallel circuit.  If you have a parallel circuit for your Christmas lights, one of the lights can be burned out and the lights still operate.  If you have Christmas lights that are a series circuit, if one light burns out then the entire circuit will not shine.