Electricity
The week on which electricity landed was a second week without a Monday. This dropped the video used to introduce voltage and current through the high head microhydro analogy.
I used a rough analogy to a waterfall as seen on the left above and then laid out definitions for voltage, current, and resistance.
This was followed by Ohm's law and the power relationship. Then I used a fan, a television monitor, and a coffee maker to calculate resistance, power usage, and the cost at the current rate of $0.4204 per kwH.
This wound up consuming the period, which is somewhat unusual as this lecture usually leaves time for a walk to examine the air conditioning units and to sometimes go on to view the solar panel output panel, although that has been dark since 2014.
Although the reportedly six million dollar Japanese solar panel project was ostensibly installed at the college with the intent of the solar plant being academically useful towards teaching students about solar energy, the panel that facilitated the educational component has been out of action for over five years. Pohnpei Utilities Corporation owns the solar plant, and access to the equipment is restricted to PUC personnel, the college has no authority to try to bring the panel back online. That said, PUC also no capability to bring the panel back up. Over the years I have reached out to the college administration to reach out through foreign affairs to ask Japan to provide assistance in reconnecting the panel - Japanese engineers were the ones who hooked up the panel in the Learning Resource Center in the first place. This too has gone nowhere over the years, though not for a lack of trying.
In Thursday's laboratory I again demonstrated that when equipment is placed between men and women, men are more likely to pick up the equipment first. Where a woman has taken hold of the equipment, when a man asks for the equipment, she automatically yields. This is not unique to here, this has been seen in science laboratory classes around the world and is thought to underlay the reason men tend to be ahead in science by the time they reach college. I use this laboratory to try to help make the class more aware of these gender matters. With some increased sensitivity, Joyceleen was able to work with the Ohm's law equipment.
Joyceleen reported value to Eric, who wrote them on the board.
In the afternoon session, Staisy attempts to light a bulb with a single wire and a single cell. Dexter watches - this after a similar demonstration of the gender-equipment interaction.
Here Susan works on equipment. An interaction here led to more discussion of the gender-equipment interaction, my thanks to Susan for helping me move this concept forward in the class.
Note that Darall is holding the power cell with one end of the wire against the cell, the other end extended toward RayJohnburg. RayJohnburg is holding a flashlight bulb against the other end of the wire. This vividly demonstrates the lack of pre-existing knowledge on electrical circuits. Thus while batteries and bulbs might seem like an exercise more appropriate to younger students, there are benefits for the students here who simply do not have a strong background in science.
I used a rough analogy to a waterfall as seen on the left above and then laid out definitions for voltage, current, and resistance.
This was followed by Ohm's law and the power relationship. Then I used a fan, a television monitor, and a coffee maker to calculate resistance, power usage, and the cost at the current rate of $0.4204 per kwH.
This wound up consuming the period, which is somewhat unusual as this lecture usually leaves time for a walk to examine the air conditioning units and to sometimes go on to view the solar panel output panel, although that has been dark since 2014.
Although the reportedly six million dollar Japanese solar panel project was ostensibly installed at the college with the intent of the solar plant being academically useful towards teaching students about solar energy, the panel that facilitated the educational component has been out of action for over five years. Pohnpei Utilities Corporation owns the solar plant, and access to the equipment is restricted to PUC personnel, the college has no authority to try to bring the panel back online. That said, PUC also no capability to bring the panel back up. Over the years I have reached out to the college administration to reach out through foreign affairs to ask Japan to provide assistance in reconnecting the panel - Japanese engineers were the ones who hooked up the panel in the Learning Resource Center in the first place. This too has gone nowhere over the years, though not for a lack of trying.
In Thursday's laboratory I again demonstrated that when equipment is placed between men and women, men are more likely to pick up the equipment first. Where a woman has taken hold of the equipment, when a man asks for the equipment, she automatically yields. This is not unique to here, this has been seen in science laboratory classes around the world and is thought to underlay the reason men tend to be ahead in science by the time they reach college. I use this laboratory to try to help make the class more aware of these gender matters. With some increased sensitivity, Joyceleen was able to work with the Ohm's law equipment.
Joyceleen reported value to Eric, who wrote them on the board.
In the afternoon session, Staisy attempts to light a bulb with a single wire and a single cell. Dexter watches - this after a similar demonstration of the gender-equipment interaction.
Here Susan works on equipment. An interaction here led to more discussion of the gender-equipment interaction, my thanks to Susan for helping me move this concept forward in the class.
Note that Darall is holding the power cell with one end of the wire against the cell, the other end extended toward RayJohnburg. RayJohnburg is holding a flashlight bulb against the other end of the wire. This vividly demonstrates the lack of pre-existing knowledge on electrical circuits. Thus while batteries and bulbs might seem like an exercise more appropriate to younger students, there are benefits for the students here who simply do not have a strong background in science.
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