The ability of humans to harness and use electricity has created numerous affordances to people over the past three centuries. Yet, several challenges and possibilities lie ahead in sustaining, generating, and using electricity in meaningful ways. Searching the Scientific American Archive using the key word “electricity” returned 388 results (on March 26, 2005, translating to over 30 articles per year), that students will have meaningful opportunities to influence during their lifetime! These include renewable energy, medicine, and materials. Students in elementary school upwards are required to know that "electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass," according to the National Science Education Standards (1999). In reality though, several students in K-16 have difficulties understanding and applying this concept to solve simple problems. Although students, middle-school and above, tend to invoke personal experiences as evidence to justify particular hypotheses, the discrepant events and ranking task assessments in our STRONG prototype will challenge their beliefs and thinking. We will use the Circuit Construction Kit Java simulation developed by the Physics Education Technology Project Team as an embedded and available resource. The STRONG prototype will activate learners' existing domain knowledge as they advance through different levels of the game. The learning goals for STRONG are predominantly the knowledge (ideas) and skills outlined in Science for All Americans and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy. These learning goals for the beginner, intermediate, proficient, and advanced levels in STRONG correspond to the primary, P, (K-2), elementary, E, (3-5), middle, M, (5-8), & high, H, (9-12) grades in the Benchmarks. For example, to decode the Benchmark 12E/P1, click on 12. Habits of Mind, E. Critical-Response Skills, and look at the first bullet in Kindergarten through Grade 2 to find P1 in the Benchmarks for Science Literacy. Along with the concept "electrical circuits require a complete loop through which an electrical current can pass," we would like players of STRONG to learn and use the knowledge and skills in three labeled strands from the Atlas for Science Literacy (2001): lines of reasoning, failure, and interacting parts. The same knowledge and skills can be developed through other design activities.
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