Recent content by erandall

Hi there! I'm teaching about rain shadows to 6th graders, and I've reached a barrier in my content knowledge. For the water cycle to work, warm, wet air near Earth's surface has to rise. In general, warm air is less dense than cold. However, due to air pressure, air near Earth's surface is...

1. I'm a middle school science teacher without a science or math background. My goal here is to avoid teaching an explanation that kids will have to unlearn later in their academic career. I'm designing a lesson to teach students how to answer this question: 2. Limitation: students are NOT...

So what I'm understanding is a filament needs much lower resistance than the wires. Why, then, is a filament considered a "resistor" when its added to the circuit. It seems like wires should technically be resistors as well--even more so than loads.

Why doesn't copper self destruct, then, when used in other parts of the circuit? Thanks for your help!

1. I'm a middle school science teacher with no science background, and I'm trying to avoid teaching any misconceptions on this topic! However, I don't know that I grasp what's going on here myself. I'm trying to explain rationale for why, on a circuit diagram, the symbol for a resistor may...