Assessment 2-2
Completion requirements
Assessment 2-2
Build your burglar alarm design using the method you chose, and provide an explanation of how it works. This may be written or oral.
Assessment 2-2
Essential Question: How can electricity be used to improve our lives?
Build a Burglar Alarm
Some people concerned with safety choose to put burglar alarms in their homes. There are many types of burglar alarms, but the basic idea is that a burglar unknowingly sets off a switch that activates the alarm.
Video
Burglar alarms either make noise to scare off the burglar or set off a signal to alert someone, or they do both. Watch How Security Systems Work.
- Electricity Kit items: connecting wires, alligator clips (for a tight connection), lamp and lamp holder, buzzer (ADLC buzzer sounds like a clapper), on-off push button switch, battery holder or thick rubber band
- paper and pencil
- batteries - AA or D cells
- PhET Simulation or Yenka software
- Optional: digital camera or scanner
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Design a burglar alarm. You can choose from several methods to build your design.
Method A: Build an alarm using ADLC Electricity Kit items
Method B: Draw a circuit diagram using paper and pencil
Method C: Simulate your alarm using PhET simulator or Yenka software
No matter which method you use, you should be prepared to share your burglar alarm design.
- If you choose Method A, you can use a digital camera.
- If you choose Method B, you could use digital camera or scanner.
- If you choose Method C, you could screensave your PhET simulation or you could save your Yenka file for sharing.
Your burglar alarm should have the following features:
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It must have a switch for detecting the burglar.
In real life, this might a switch that is activated when a burglar opens a door. - It must have a buzzer.
In real life, this would be the alarm that goes off to scare the burglar away. - It must have a lamp.
In real life, the lamp would be the signal that goes off in the police station. - It must have a power source.
In real life, this is a source of electricity that provides energy for the alarm.
- It must be a parallel circuit.
Assessment
Click here to download Assessment 2-2 Build a Burglar Alarm. Read this carefully so that you understand the expectations of this assessment. Click here for a printer-friendly version of the file.
Build your burglar alarm design using the method you chose, and provide an explanation of how it works. This may be written or oral.
Technology Connection
Motion sensors make burglar alarm systems very effective. Most motion sensors actually do not sense motion; however, they are very sensitive to body heat. The human body gives off invisible waves of heat called infrared waves. If the
motion sensor detects the infrared waves, it activates a switch that sets off the alarm.