Preparation for Future Learning: Electric Flux
At a Glance
Discipline
- STEM
- Physics
Instructional Level
- College & CEGEP
- University
Course
- Electricity and Magnetism
Tasks in Workflow
Social Plane(s)
- Individual
- Group
Type of Tasks
- Collecting & seeking information
- Solving problems
- Analyzing
- Reading
Technical Details
Useful Technologies
- EdEX
Class size
- Large (100-250)
Time
- Brief segment of class period (< 20 mins)
Instructional Purpose
- Preparation & knowledge activation
Overview
In this worksheet activity, students are introduced to the concept of flux, in particular electric flux. The aim of the activity is to prepare for future learning by having students recognize important features and having them pay attention to the relation between the field lines and the area.
Students will observe 6 scenarios given of rain falling on a house (the angle/number of the windows varies as does the angle of the rain). Students will then be asked in-class to invent one equation using words that describes how much rain would end up in each house for all six cases.
The strategy used in this activity is the case study. This activity occurs in one class session. It benefits students as it gives them analogies to instinctually understand the more abstract Gauss’ law.
Instructional Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Build a flux equation
- Make connections between a real-world scenario and the representation in an equation
Workflow & Materials
Activity Workflow
Contributor's Notes
- Builds on everyday experiences to provide an intuitive understanding of flux
- Students learn to make a connection between concepts and mathematics
- Introduces the electric flux equation when students are prepared for it by building on the much more intuitive rain flux. It thus provides meaning to a fairly abstract concept.
- Give questions in class to check in with students and make sure that they understood the analogy. This can be in the form of the scaffolded worksheet or the clicker questions.
Applied Strategies
Published: 05/07/2022
Copyright: © 2025 Rieger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication on this website is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.