Franklin Avenue 4th Graders Learn About Electricity [VIDEO]

One important goal in teaching is to help students make connections between the lessons in they learn in class and their every-day lives.

Pearl River resident Anthony Russo, an electrical engineer with Skae Power Solutions in Palisades, stopped by Franklin Avenue Elementary School Monday to help do just that.

"The fourth grade has been studying magnetism and electricity as part of our science curriculum and in order to connect what we are studying to real life," said Franklin Avenue fourth-grade teacher Vivian Pratt.

Pratt said that Russo had done the same thing when his older son was a fourth grader at Franklin Avenue. Russo's son Dan is currently in Pratt's class.

Russo took the students through definitions of turns such sources and pathways, helping them to learn how electrical circuits work. He demonstrated using a Snap Circuit Jr. Kit, which allows for quick demonstrations of how things such as music boxes and light bulbs can draw power or be cut off from it based on the placement of pathways.

Russo also let the class feel various types of wires and showed how a meter from his work can judge the voltage of a power outlet.