Stepping Out - A Tale from the Classroom

(Audio supplement available at the end of this post)

One day I am in the middle of my Honors Physics class talking about magnetism… I get a phone call from Sonja, the AP Biology teacher, and find out she is having problems with her computer/LCD projector. Of course she really NEEDS help quickly because her whole class is sitting around with nothing to do waiting for some slide-show on her computer.

Well, as we all know, teachers are NOT supposed to leave their classrooms unattended… but my class IS full of the "best" students in the school… and they are all busy working on a practice problem. I should be able to run out of the classroom just for a quick moment without anything happening, right?

So, I do… leave my classroom, jog over to Sonja's room and get her computer working...

After about five minutes I return to class... They have been busy indeed...

I find that most of the tables have been moved... The Physics students are all sitting, quietly, at the rearranged tables, holding one-another's hands…

As I walk to the front of the class I notice that each of them has a sheet of binder paper taped to their shirt… on each is a large symbol… mostly resistors, but here-and-there a lamp (light), or a battery, or a motor… electric circuit symbols… The students have created a classroom-sized electric schematic… their arms are the wires.

The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations
- Eli Khamarov

At the front of the room, two open student hands lay on my desk… It's an "open circuit" indeed… 

After a moment's thought at this situation… I walk up to my desk… students snickering… I grab one student's free hand and point my opposite arm up in the air like a giant switch… I bring it down with great exaggeration and make a loud "click!" sound as I connect to the second student's hand… The circuit is complete!

Just then, one of the "lamp" students says "blink!"... then the "motor" student makes a whirring sound. Amidst rampant giggling other lamps join in.

Eventually I lift my hand, opening the circuit again and the "lamps" and "motor" turn off. The class laughs and claps...

At least I know that they have learned a thing-or-two about electricity this year!