Science Olympiad 2014 Coaches Clinic MSU Circuit Lab (C)

Changes from 2013 • Theory 50-75% Practical 25-50% – Was 50-50 • New topics – History, Wheatstone Bridge – Digital Logic • Combinatorial only, no sequential circuits • Schematic Symbols • Boolean Logic, equations • Circuit Simplification 2

Electronics is Problem Solving • Draw a schematic of an actual device • Identify real parts (R, C, …) • Read part parameters: values, tolerance, wattage, working voltage … 3

Engineering Terminology • Metric Prefix Engineering Units 3.15 k Ω, 0.22 μF 1,255 kwh 4.7 mH • Not Scientific Notation • Confusion m (milli) M (mega) s (second) S (Siemens) 4

Hints • Answer the Question !!

• Units – If it asks for volts, don’t answer in amps • Dimensional analysis – sanity check • Shouldn’t get more out than in • Get hands-on familiar with the real stuff 5

Practical Portion • Open ended – not cook book – Build something from a “bucket” of parts, power it up, then measure some things.

– Draw a schematic, ID parts and values from a circuit board.

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Problem Areas (from 2013) • Familiarity with parts 7

??? How to hookup? What goes where?

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How to Measure?

• Hook up the meter ?

– Ohms – Volts – Amps • Auto Scale vs. Manual • AC vs. DC • Common Sense “Sanity” Check 9

Hands On Practice • Students need to

build

circuits • Measure voltage and current in circuit – Voltage

Across

– Current

Through

– Blow fuses ???

– Ground ?

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Regional Level • Broad topic coverage • General basic concepts • Mostly single step “Forward” problems • But thought provoking, not just memory 11

State Level • Teams have already succeeded at Regional • We assume they can do Ohm’s law and other simple one-step problems • Memorization of formulae will not be successful – teams will need to APPLY the fundamental principles to solve the problems.!

• Multi Step “Backwards” solutions 12

Sample Questions • • Taken (modified) from 2013

Do NOT take as a definitive sample

• 2014 will have topics not shown • Intent is to show level of complexity, “word problem” context, and schematics.

• NOTE: Digital logic not in 2013, but will be in 2014.

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