They light up the room

Fifth-grade students at Harbour View Elementary School got a crash course in electricity circuits from the Discovery Science Center outreach program Monday.

For the last two years, the school has invited a teacher with the Science Center to bring presentations that supplement the students’ science education. On Monday, Christy Orcholski’s fifth-grade class learned about electricity.

The students sat down for a 10-minute introduction with Lanna Tiffany so she could discuss the different facets of electricity ? where it comes from, what it’s used for and how it’s conducted. The students then became young electrical engineers and props in science demonstrations.

“It’s absolutely excellent because the kids look forward to these opportunities,” Orcholski said.

The students eagerly volunteered to participate in a demonstration in which they became a doorbell circuit, to demonstrate electrical circuitry. They passed “electrons” ? bright yellow golf balls ? from one person to the next, until the exercise resulted in a ding-dong sound. “We’re giving them just a little bit more than the book can tell them,” Tiffany said.

After a few demonstrations, the students were put in small groups and were able to actually build an electric circuit using a Switch-On kit, which consists of plastic modules that can be used to build different electrical circuits.

With the kit, the students were able to build circuits of varying types, adding more pieces with each project. They made lightbulbs light and fans spin to illustrate how electrical circuits work.

“The programs are a great way to get hands-on learning that a lot of teachers don’t have the materials to do,” Tiffany said.

This kind of learning enriches the students’ education by presenting information in a way that differs from regular classroom activities, said fifth-grade Harbour View teacher April LeMense. It also provides a resource for teachers because when they teach about the material presented by the Discovery Science Center, they can refer back to it, triggering the students’ memories.

“It allows her [Tiffany] to share her expertise and present it in a different way than I would have,” said Orcholski, who has taught at the school for six years. “I can refer to that while teaching the unit ? and say ‘remember when.’”

Orcholski also said it was important to bring outside sources into the classroom to show the students that there’s life beyond the borders of Harbour View Elementary, and even Huntington Beach.

In March, the Discovery Science Center visited the school’s planetarium star lab and solar system presentation. Another presenter will come this month for an earth science lab where a pig’s heart will be dissected and compared to the human heart.

“I think it gives them [students] the opportunity to extend their science learning and do more advanced activities that they wouldn’t be able to do during normal classroom activities,” LeMense said. “They students are so enthusiastic about their learning.”hbi.06-itc-1-BPhotoInfoLS1PKP6Q20060406ix80eeknJAMIE FLANAGAN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Discovery Science Center Outreach Instructor, Lanna Tiffany, uses students from Christie Orcholski’s 5th grade class to demonstrate how electrical circuits work Monday at Harbour View Elementary School.hbi.06-itc-2-BPhotoInfoLS1PKP8K20060406ix80fkkn(LA)Corey Robb, left, and Chad McCallister participate in a demonstration of how electrical circuits work.