Skip to Content Go to sign in Skip to Primary Navigation Skip to Secondary Navigation Skip to Page Navigation Skip to Header Navigation Skip to Footer Navigation Read more about accessability options and our navigation

Physics Classroom is making strides to make our site accessible to everyone. Our site contains 6 navigation areas. The Primary, Secondary, and Page Level navigations have a screen reader version of their nav structure that allows using the left and right keys to navigate sibling navigation items, and up or down keys to navigate parent or child navigation items. The others can be navigated using tabs. The Primary Navigation handles the first 2 levels of site pages. The Secondary (which is not always available) handles the 3rd and 4th level of structure. The Page level navigation allows you to navigate the current page's headings quickly. The Header Navigation contains the Light/Dark Mode toggle, Search, Notifications and account login. The Breadcrumb Navigation contains the breadcrumb of the current page. If the current page has a breadcrumb, you can get to it by skipping to the content and tabbing in reverse (shift plus tab). The Footer Navigation contains links such as Privacy, Contact, about and terms. Some resources contain an Audio Player that can be activated by holding down the T key for 3 seconds, and then using K to pause and resume. While not every area of Physics Classroom is usable purely from keyboard and screen reader, we are committed to continue work on making this possible. If you have questions or need additional help, please use this link to contact us.

Return to screen reader navigation
Home Interactives Electric Circuits The Four Band Resistor Notes

The Four Band Resistor Notes

Notes:

The Four-Band Resistor Interactive is a re-scalable file that displays nicely on smart phones, on tablets such as the iPad, on Chromebooks, and on laptops and desktops. The size of the Interactive can be scaled to fit the device that it is displayed on. The compatibility with iPads, other tablets, and Chromebooks make it a perfect tool for use in a 1:1 classroom.

Teaching Ideas and Suggestions:

We most often create simulations because there is a phenomenon or physical situation that we wish to model and have students explore. Once the simulation is created, we often times create a Student Activity Sheet that can be used to provide students a guided experience that still promotes inquiry. This simulation is a bit of a deviation from the usual custom. We had a Student Activity Sheet available for a Wolfram Alpha widget. The use of the widget on our website will periodically fail as we make changes to the site. So we figured we would just make a comparable widget that was our very own. And we made it to be synchronized with the Student Activity Sheet that was already available.

Most of us probably do labs in which graphite-based resistors are used. And in most instances, those resistors are probably color-coded. It usually isn't a course objective to be able to make sense of the colors. And that's not the objective of this Interactive either. Of course if it were a course objective, then this Interactive would be a perfect for the objective. But the intended objective of this Interactive was to provide students a pattern-finding exercise in which they collect data in an effort to determine a pattern. The pattern is the relationship between the color of the first three bands and the resistance of the resistor. The power of the activity is not in knowing the pattern, but in the act of discovering it. Our intended emphasis is on the process and not the conclusion. Our Student Activity Sheet was designed with this in mind.

Given the above discussion, it ought to be clear that we do highly recommend the use of the Four-Band Resistor Interactive with our Student Activity Sheet titled Cracking the Code. The Student Activity Sheet directs students to determine the code that is used to relate the color of the first three bands to the resistance of the resistor. After doing their exploring, students make a claim and support it with evidence and reasoning.

View Student Activity Sheet.

Related Resources:

There are numerous resources at The Physics Classroom website that serve as very complementary supports for a unit on Electric Circuits. These include:
  • Reading:
    The Electric Circuits Chapter of the Tutorial provides an interactive textbook. The language is user-friendly and the text is heavily illustrated. There are numerouse examples with detailed solutions and opportunities for extra practice.
     
  • Minds On Physics Internet Modules:
    The Minds On Physics Internet Modules include a collection of interactive questioning modules that help learners assess their understanding of physics concepts and solidify those understandings by answering questions that require higher-order thinking.They are best used in the middle to later stages of the learning cycle. Visit the Minds On Physics Internet Modules.

     
  • Physics Interacitves: our Circuit Builder Interactive provides a virtual circuit for students to manipulate and explore. It is accompanied by five ready-to-use Student Activity Sheets that explore various aspects of electric circuits. Each student activity is accompanied by a Concept Checker that serves as a great follow-up check for understanding. Visit Circuit Builder Interactive.

     
  • Concept Builders: Concept Builders provide students great exercises in thinking and conceptual reasoning. You will find several on cirrcuit concepts. Visit Concept Builders.

     
  • Curriculum/Practice: Several Concept Development worksheets at the Curriculum Corner will be very useful in assisting students in cultivating an understanding of circuit. Visit the Curriculum Corner,

  •  
  • Labwork:
    Simulations should always support (never replace) hands-on learning. The Laboratory section of The Physics Classroom website includes several hands-on ideas that complement this Interactive. Visit The Laboratory.
  • Science Reasoning Activities:
    Science classrooms should be filled with reasoning activities. Like the Cracking the Code activity, Science Reasoning Center activities emphasize the process over the content. If you've never tried one, then you check them out.. Visit the Science Reasoning Center.
     

Additional resources and ideas for incorporating Four-Band Resistor Interactive into an instructional unit on Electric Circuits can be found at the Teacher Toolkits section of The Physics Classroom website. There are several toollkits available for the topic of electric circuits. Visit Teacher Toolkits.

Visit: The Four Band Resistor Interactive