How can electricity help us communicate?

How can electricity help us communicate?

Materials needed

• Two small light sockets with bulbs 
• Two switches
• Lantern battery 
• Six 1 m (1 yd.) lengths of insulated copper wire.

Procedure

1. Use your materials to construct a circuit like the one in figure 8.22-1.
2. Press one switch. What happened?
3. Release the first switch and press the second one. What happened?
4. Press both switches at once.
5. Can you think of some use for a device like this?
6. If it is available, you could splice more wire into the circuit and take one switch and light into another room.

For problem solvers:

 look up the mores code in an encyclopedia. If you and a friend would care to learn the mores code, you could have a lot of fun sending messages to each other. Or you might prefer to create your own code. Set up your telegraph sets so that you can be in separate rooms, or in separate parts of the room, and make each other's light blink with your switch.

Teacher information

This is a variation of the telegraph. There are several ways to wire the circuit. This one is parallel. The original telegraph sets were wired in series so all keys to but one had to be closed and all messages went through all the sounders in the circuit. Telegraphs offices often followed the railroads and needed only one wire on the poles. The iron rails were used as the second or ground wire. The original telegraph, patented by Morse, used an electromagnet to attract a magnetic material (soft iron) and make a loud clicking sound. Telegraphers were trained to hear combinations of long and short "dots and dashes" to represent letters of the alphabet. This is called the mores code.
The completion of the transcontinental telegraph near the end of the civil war was extremely significant. For the first time, a message could travel across the nation in seconds rather than in weeks. The circuit above uses the electric light, which was not invented until much later.
In addition to the activity suggested in the "for problem solvers" section, your motivated students might enjoy designing and constructing a telegraph using electromagnets.

Preparation of science fair project

How to prepare a final report for your science fair project

Generally a teacher would give guidelines as to what is expected in the final report, but if none come home with the project directions, then I recommend including the following sections (similar to a scientific paper) in this order:

Title, author, date

Abstract: 1 paragraph summary of entire project

 Introduction: 
Background information including things like the motivation for picking your topic and why the project is important. Also include the hypothesis in this section.

 Methods and Materials:
 This section can have several sub-sections. It would start with a list of what was used in the project. Also included would be a description of all the variables – independent, dependent, controlled and the control and level of replication. Once all that is spelled out, start with the procedure and describe the steps needed to complete the project. Photos of the process would also be included here.


Results: 
This section highlights the data – i.e., tables and graphs with descriptions of what they show. Remember that descriptions go above tables, but below graphs. Photos of results would go here.

Discussion:
  Now is the time to discuss the results – what does the data show, what did you learn, what surprised you, why do you think the results happened the way thbey did. Here you can also add what you would do better and what you would do as a follow-up experiment.


Conclusion: 
Specifically state if the data support or refute the hypothesis.


Acknowledgements: 
Thank everyone who helped you including your teachers, friends, mentors, and parents.

 References: Bibliography

Writing a final report is one of the best ways to prepare for the judging interview.

Source: http://science-fair-coach.com