Conductivity is crucial to our lives– from light bulbs to cellphones, we use it every day. But what allows materials to conduct electricity? Are all materials conductive to the same degree? In this activity, we focus on what makes materials conductive (going into a small amount of band theory) and how we classify different materials based on their ability to transport electrons. The lab focuses on circuits, using conductive ink pens from Circuit Scribe , started right here at University of Illinois in the Materials Science department!
Facilities needed: Classroom
Keywords: conductivity, electrons, band theory, circuits, resistance, insulator, semi conductor
Files to Download:
- Conductivity Module
- Conductivity Lecture
- Conductivity Lecture Notes
- Conductivity Instructor Handout
- Conductivity Basic Student Lab Handout
- Conductivity Advanced Student Lab Handout
- All files (zip)
Girls Learning About Materials by Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.