Using Switch Classroom in High School Physics

Lynn Kistler  ·  SEA Teacher Advisory Council
Wed, August 24, 2022
Email Link Copy Link

Switch, the full-length documentary, has been a regular component of my AP Environmental course since I received my first copy of the DVD over ten years ago.  I was impressed by the balanced and fact-based tone of the film which is often hard to come by when presenting environmental issues.  A couple of years later, I learned about the Energy Primers and Energy Labs, the short and direct educational videos that provided further information about electricity.  As I began previewing these resources, I realized that they were perfect for use in teaching electricity in my high school physics classes.  Now, thanks to Switch Classroom, electricity is a more approachable and applicable unit in the course.  

Most students take our use and access to electricity for granted so I begin the electricity unit with two lessons from Switch Classroom, Introduction to Energy and Electricity Supply and Demand.  These two lessons provide a great hook to engage students and get them to start thinking about electricity, how much they use, how it is made, and how it gets to our homes.  During these lessons, I also ensure that students are able to access and navigate the Switch Classroom platform and address any issues encountered by individual students.  This is a particularly important step when you may have students in the classroom and others working from home. We continue with two more introductory lessons that include The Energy Mix and 

What Powers the World?  A great part of this lesson for the physics class is the Energy Fact Sheet that reviews the many forms of energy such as potential, kinetic, thermal, chemical, nuclear, etc.  I use the Math FRQ question from What Powers the World? as a challenge for my higher level students. 

Next, we start getting into the muscle of the unit by really exploring electricity.  Below is a list of lessons with a few notes about each. 

Introduction to Electricity.  This has another great reading that reviews current, voltage, resistance and Ohm’s law. 

Science and Sources of Electricity.  A short but important lesson as it asks students to summarize the process of electricity production.  

Electric Power Infrastructure.  Students have fun creating the visual representation of energy being made and transmitted to their homes.  I give groups of students large whiteboards and have them work with a partner on this part of the lesson.  

Battery Basics.  Fundamentals of the batteries that power an ever-increasing part of our world is essential knowledge for everyone. 

The Importance of Storing Electricity.  I usually have students complete the video and quiz only for this section and then we have a discussion about why this is an important issue and challenge students with the notion that it is their generation that will need to come up with solutions to energy storage.  

In addition to the above lessons, students also learn about circuits and Ohm’s law interspersed within the electricity unit, but Switch Classroom provides the backbone of  the unit, making the concept of electricity something pertinent and meaningful to the students. 

As the culmination of the unit, each student gets to explore their own personal energy use by looking at energy efficiency and conservation.  I use these Switch Classroom lessons for this final part of the unit.  

Energy Efficiency.  Students always gasp when Dr. Tinker pours the soda on the floor and takes a hammer to a phone!  Here again, I give the Advanced part of the lesson to those students who would like a challenge. 

Smarter Energy Use.  The final activity in this lesson asks students to use the  S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goal-setting technique to develop a plan for saving energy.  

Overall, I allow about four weeks on the electricity unit.  The last two years have made pacing difficult as our school has changed the schedule multiple times, but I have been able to keep the unit within this approximate time frame. This, again, incorporates the use of the Switch Classroom as well as other traditional forms of instruction, practice, and labs for the students related to electricity.    

At the end of each school year, I survey students about the course, what they liked as well as areas for improvement.  Consistently Switch and Dr. Tinker are always a student favorite.  If you are looking to reboot your electricity curriculum, I encourage you to give Switch Classroom a try.  

Back

Latest Posts

Using Switch Classroom for High School Chemistry

Teacher Advisory Council member Trisa Swenson describes how she uses Switch Classroom materials to make chemistry easier for her high...

Using Switch Classroom in High School Physics

TAC Member Lynn Kistler describes how she uses Switch Classroom materials to teach her high school physics students about electricity

Teaching Energy to Gifted and Talented Elementary School Students with Switch Classroom

In this edition of the Teacher Advisory Council blog TAC member Julie Valsaint describes how she uses Switch Classroom material...

Using Switch Classroom to Prepare for AP Exams

In this edition of the Teacher Advisory Council blog, TAC Member Sabrina Ewald describes how she uses Switch Classroom to...


  

Rate this Video

Terms & Conditions

Agreement between User and the Site

Welcome to switchon.org. The switchon.org website (the “Site”) is comprised of various web pages operated by Switch Energy Alliance (“SEA”). The Site is offered to you conditioned on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein (the “Terms”). Your use of the Site constitutes your agreement to all such Terms. Please read these terms carefully and keep a copy of them for your reference.

The Site is a non-profit site.

SEA is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to inspiring an energy-educated future that is objective, nonpartisan, and sensible. SEA’s global video- and web-based approach engages students and general viewers in a positive conversation to work collaboratively on energy challenges. SEA reaches millions of people of all ages where they live and learn: online, in classrooms, in professional training, and in museums.

Privacy

Your use of the Site is subject to SEA’s Privacy Policy. Please review our Privacy Policy, which also governs the Site and informs users of our data collection practices.

Electronic Communications

Visiting the Site or sending emails to SEA constitutes electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically, via email and on the Site, satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Your Account

If you use this site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. You may not assign or otherwise transfer your account to any other person or entity. You acknowledge that SEA is not responsible for third party access to your account that results from theft or misappropriation of your account. SEA and its associates reserve the right to refuse or cancel service, terminate accounts, or remove or edit content in our sole discretion.

Children Under Thirteen

If you are under the age of thirteen, you may not use this website without written permission from a parent or guardian.. Parental consent is required for the collection, use, or disclosure of information regarding children under thirteen, and SEA will not knowingly collect, use, or disclose any personal information from a child under the age of thirteen if the parent does not provide such consent. If you are a parent and you would like to grant your child written permission to access this website or have questions regarding our data collection practices, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this agreement.

Links to Third Party Sites/Third Party Services

The Site may contain links to other websites (“Linked Sites”). The Linked Sites are not under the control of SEA and SEA is not responsible for the contents of any Linked Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Linked Site, or any changes or updates to a Linked Site. SEA is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by SEA of the site or any association with its operators.

Certain services made available via the Site are delivered by third party sites and organizations. By using any product, service or functionality originating from the Site domain’s, you hereby acknowledge and consent that SEA may share such information and data with any third party with whom SEA has a contractual relationship to provide the requested product, service or functionality on behalf of the Site users and customers.

No Unlawful or Prohibited Use/Intellectual Property

You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Site strictly in accordance with these terms of use. As a condition of your use of the Site, you warrant to SEA that you will not use the Site for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms. You may not use the Site in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Site or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the Site. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the Site.

All content included as part of the Service, such as text, graphics, logos, images, as well as the compilation thereof, and any software used on the Site, is the property of SEA or its suppliers and protected by copyright and other laws that protect intellectual property and proprietary rights. You agree to observe and abide by all copyright and other proprietary notices, legends or other restrictions contained in any such content and will not make any changes thereto.

You will not modify, publish, transmit, reverse engineer, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works, or in any way exploit any of the content, in whole or in part, found on the Site. SEA content is not for resale. Your use of the Site does not entitle you to make any unauthorized use of any protected content, and in particular you will not delete or alter any proprietary rights or attribution notices in any content. You will use protected content solely for your personal use and will make no other use of the content without the express written permission of SEA and the copyright owner. You agree that you do not acquire any ownership rights in any protected content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of SEA or our licensors except as expressly authorized by these Terms.

Materials Provided to the Site or Posted on Any SEA Web Page

SEA does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to the Site (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to any SEA Site or our associated services (collectively “Submissions”). However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting SEA, our affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses.

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your Submission as described in this section including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the Submissions.

International Users

The Service is controlled, operated and administered by SEA from our offices within the USA. If you access the Service from a location outside the USA, you are responsible for compliance with all local laws. You agree that you will not use the SEA Content accessed through the Site in any country or in any manner prohibited by any applicable laws, restrictions or regulations.

Arbitration

In the event the parties are not able to resolve any dispute between them arising out of or concerning these Terms and Conditions, or any provisions hereof, whether in contract, tort, or otherwise at law or in equity for damages or any other relief, then such dispute shall be resolved only by final and binding arbitration pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act, conducted by a single neutral arbitrator and administered by the American Arbitration Association, or a similar arbitration service selected by the parties, in a location mutually agreed upon by the parties. The arbitrator’s award shall be final, and judgment may be entered upon it in any court having jurisdiction. In the event that any legal or equitable action, proceeding or arbitration arises out of or concerns these Terms and Conditions, the prevailing party shall be entitled to recover its costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. The parties agree to arbitrate all disputes and claims in regard to these Terms and Conditions or any disputes arising as a result of these Terms and Conditions, whether directly or indirectly, including Tort claims that are a result of these Terms and Conditions. The parties agree that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision. The entire dispute, including the scope and enforceability of this arbitration provision shall be determined by the Arbitrator. This arbitration provision shall survive the termination of these Terms and Conditions.

Class Action Waiver

Any arbitration under these Terms and Conditions will take place on an individual basis; class arbitrations and class/representative/collective actions are not permitted. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT A PARTY MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN EACH’S INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PUTATIVE CLASS, COLLECTIVE AND/ OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING, SUCH AS IN THE FORM OF A PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION AGAINST THE OTHER. Further, unless both you and SEA agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.

Liability Disclaimer

THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES INCLUDED IN OR AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE MAY INCLUDE INACCURACIES OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN. SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE SITE AT ANY TIME.

SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND. SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THIS INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE, WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR RELATED SERVICES, THE PROVISION OF OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SITE, OR OTHERWISE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE SITE, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF SWITCH ENERGY ALLIANCE OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGES. BECAUSE SOME STATES/JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY PORTION OF THE SITE, OR WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS OF USE, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SITE.

Termination/Access Restriction

SEA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to the Site and the related services or any portion thereof at any time, without notice. To the maximum extent permitted by law, this agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Texas and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Texas in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of the Site. Use of the Site is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these Terms, including, without limitation, this section.

You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and SEA as a result of this agreement or use of the Site. SEA’s performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of SEA’s right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the Site or information provided to or gathered by SEA with respect to such use. If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect.

Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the user and SEA with respect to the Site and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the user and SEA with respect to the Site. A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. It is the express wish to the parties that this agreement and all related documents be written in English.

Changes to Terms

SEA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change the Terms under which the Site is offered. The most current version of the Terms will supersede all previous versions. SEA encourages you to periodically review the Terms to stay informed of our updates.

Contact Us

SEA welcomes your questions or comments regarding the Terms:

Switch Energy Alliance
3500 Oakmont Blvd., Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78731

Email Address:
info@switchenergyalliance.org

Privacy Policy

Protecting your private information is our priority. This Statement of Privacy applies to www.switchon.org and Switch Energy Alliance and governs data collection and usage. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise noted, all references to Switch Energy Alliance include www.switchon.org and SEA. The SEA website is a energy education site. By using the SEA website, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

In order to better provide you with products and services offered on our Site, SEA may collect personally identifiable information, such as your:

  • First and Last Name
  • Email Address

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through SEA’s public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others.

We do not collect any personal information about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us. However, you may be required to provide certain personal information to us when you elect to use certain products or services available on the Site. These may include: (a) registering for an account on our Site; (b) entering a sweepstakes or contest sponsored by us or one of our partners; (c) signing up for special offers from selected third parties; (d) sending us an email message; (e) submitting your credit card or other payment information when ordering and purchasing products and services on our Site. To wit, we will use your information for, but not limited to, communicating with you in relation to services and/or products you have requested from us. We also may gather additional personal or non-personal information in the future.

Use of your Personal Information

SEA collects and uses your personal information to operate its website(s) and deliver the services you have requested.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

SEA does not sell, rent or lease its user lists to third parties.

SEA may share data with trusted partners to help perform statistical analysis, send you email, provide user support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to SEA, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

SEA may disclose your personal information, without notice, if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on SEA or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of SEA; and/or (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of SEA, or the public.

Tracking User Behavior

SEA may keep track of the websites and pages our users visit within SEA, in order to determine what SEA services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content to users whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area. Collected data is never sold or used for advertising purposes.

Automatically Collected Information

Information we automatically collect when visiting an SEA website includes the follows:

  • IP address
  • Location and timezone information
  • Device information
  • Web browser information
  • Page view statistics
  • Video view statistics
  • Browsing history
  • Usage information
  • Cookies and other tracking technologies (e.g. user sessions, pixel tags, etc.)
  • Log data (e.g. access times, access duration, etc.)

Information is used for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the SEA website.

Use of Cookies

The SEA website may use “cookies” to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize SEA pages, or register with SEA site or services, a cookie helps SEA to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same SEA website, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the SEA features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the SEA services or websites you visit.

Links

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of any other site that collects personally identifiable information.

Security of your Personal Information

SEA uses technical safeguards designed to secure your personal information and protect against unauthorized access to or alteration of your personal information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Transmission of all Site information including sensitive information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). While we strive to protect your personal information, you acknowledge that: (a) there are security and privacy limitations inherent to the Internet which are beyond our control; and (b) security, integrity, and privacy of any and all information and data exchanged between you and us through this Site cannot be guaranteed.

Children Under Thirteen

If you are under the age of thirteen, you may not use this website without written permission from a parent or guardian.  Parental consent is required for the collection, use, or disclosure of information regarding children under thirteen, and SEA will not knowingly collect, use, or disclose any personal information from a child under the age of thirteen if the parent does not provide such consent. If you are a parent and you would like to grant your child written permission to access this website or  have questions regarding our data collection practices, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this agreement.

Email Communications

From time to time, SEA may contact you via email for the purpose of providing newsletters, announcements, promotional offers, alerts, confirmations, surveys, and/or other general communication. In order to improve our Services, we may receive a notification when you open an email from SEA or click on a link therein.

If you would like to stop receiving communications via email from SEA, you may opt out of such communications by following the instructions on the email..

External Data Storage Sites

We may store your data on servers provided by third party hosting vendors with whom we have contracted.

Changes to this Statement

SEA reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account, by placing a prominent notice on our site, and/or by updating any privacy information on this page. Your continued use of the Site and/or Services available through this Site after such modifications will constitute your: (a) acknowledgment of the modified Privacy Policy; and (b) agreement to abide and be bound by that Policy.

Contact Information

SEA welcomes your questions or comments regarding this Statement of Privacy. If you believe that SEA has not adhered to this Statement, please contact SEA at:

Switch Energy Alliance
3500 Oakmont Blvd., Suite 100
Austin, Texas 78731

Email Address:
info@switchenergyalliance.org