Harness electricity to communicate

Part 1: Prior knowledge and vocabulary

• Students are introduced to the context of the lesson which places them in the role of completing the emergency communication component of a search and rescue certification program. Students answer questions related to lesson learning objectives as a pre-assessment.  Students are also introduced to the project’s working vocabulary.

Part 2: Analog data

• Students collaborate with their teams to learn the parts of an electrical circuit and construct an electrical switch. Students then build an LED Signal Lamp, an Electromagnet, and a Voice Coil Speaker. Next they integrate their switch, LED Signal Lamp and Voice Coil Speaker for use as a Morse code telegraph key. Students then practice sending and receiving simple messages in a simulated emergency situation with their analog telegraph using a Morse code guide.

Part 3: Digital data

• Students collaborate with their team to convert their analog telegraph to a digital telegraph. Students remove their LED and voice coil speaker and rewire their circuit to be compatible with their microcontroller.
• Students connect their digital telegraph to the Excel workbook via the microcontroller. Students use the graphics on the Excel Workbook to visualize communication data and transmit, receive, and decipher Morse code. They repeat the communication training from Part 2 using the new digital format and make comparisons with the analog communication.

Part 4: Reflection

• Students finish their student journal and reflection questions.

• The concepts and materials in this lesson provide opportunities to engage your students in the engineer’s design process and testing of ideas using the scientific method.
• Use the templates located on the dropdown menu of the Science and Engineering Practices page in the Students section to guide your students.
• There are ideas to get you started written on the templates. Students are also encouraged to generate their own ideas.