The Fourth Grade would like to thank Angela Priest, Versant Power's Safety Education Specialist, for visiting today and teaching us about electricity. We learned about electrical conductors and insulators, open and closed circuits, electrical safety, the behavior of electricity, and what happens in various scenarios where electricity comes in contact with the world around us. If you zoom in on the pictures you will see the red circle that shows what happens when that particular item (backhoe, ladder, wire on ground) touches a wire or the ground. We did get an interesting fact about how squirrels can cause a power outage. It is mainly because you have two squirrels on two wires with different voltages and their tails touch!
We also learned that lineman gloves are made up of two layers. The first layer is a specially rated rubber glove (there are different ratings for different voltages) and then they put a leather glove on top of that. The leather glove protects the rubber glove from getting punctured. Gloves are inspected for holes prior to putting them on because any puncture, no matter how small, makes them ineffective in insulating the worker from the high voltage they are working with.
Lastly, we learned what to do if a wire is on your car. Fourth graders were asked to share this information with at least one adult in their life. If you have a wire on your car and there is no smoke or fire, then stay put. If you see or smell smoke or see fire you need to get out. You can steady yourself on the door jamb or the running board of your car (as long as you aren't touching the ground, you are much like a bird on a wire and are part of the circuit) and hop out with your feet together. Do not close the door and do not have your body come in contact with the vehicle! Keep your feet together and shuffle until you are at least 30 feet away.
Ladder on wire
Lineman Gloves
Wire on Fence
Backhoe Touch
Wire on Ground
