Students were still becoming familiar with using circuit diagrams and Ohm’s Law to calculate voltage, currents, and resistances for components in a circuit. In order to support their ability to work on tasks on their own, multiple opportunities for scaffolding were presented. The activity sheet contains many examples of scaffolding the learning. When considering the brightness of the lightbulbs in both series and parallel circuits, example circuit diagrams were provided that students could use as a model example for drawing their own circuit diagrams later in the activity sheet. In the sections of the activity sheet where students were asked to find relationships between the voltage, current, and resistance for the lightbulbs and the total circuits, table organizing charts (called VIR charts) provided support for students and modeled how physicists track the behavior of circuits across different elements. The activities also pushed to students to reflect on their understanding and reconstruct models of voltage, current, and resistance through the use of guided questions and reflection prompts. These reconstructions increased the depth of abstraction and their ability to reason through different hypothetical scenarios during the lecture.

This activity heavily focused on having students socially construct knowledge about series and parallel circuits together. All groups were in constant dialogue about the use of the multimeter, the construction of series and parallel circuits, and how the voltages and current were affected in each circuit. Students collaborating together made the learning more independent, as different students in the groups showed mastery in different aspect of the lesson and raised each other up to meet the standards of learning.