Understanding Electricity with an Augmented Circuit Exhibit

Electrical circuits are difficult to understand. Novices tend to have inadequate understandings of what happens at the level of atoms and electrons, leading to difficulty predicting the outcomes of electrical circuits at the level of wires, resistors, and light bulbs. In this paper, we describe an augmented science museum exhibit that enables visitors to make circuits on an interactive tabletop and observe a simulation of electrons flowing through the circuit on a separate handheld device. We used augmented reality to couple the electron simulation with the circuit simulator. We then discuss findings from a pilot study with family visitors at a science museum that highlight the learning benefits of integrating an electron-level simulation into a circuit building environment.