hands on class

[Rewire]

I am teaching an intro to residential wiring class and would like to give the students some hands on expierience.I have a small budget for materials to build some kind of mock up wall or something along those lines any suggestions.

 

[raider1]

Are you located close to any wire manufactures?

I teach for a small tech college and we made arrangements with a wire manufacturer to use their factory seconds for hands on practical work. They were OK with us using their factory seconds as long as when we are done we send the used wire scraps back to the plant for recycling.

Chris

 

[480sparky]

Don't bother with a room-sized display. You can easily fit dozens of boxes in a 4'x6' area. Switches, receps, lights, etc. all wire through the back and the front is covered so the students can't see how it's wired. Feed power in through a switch first, so they can safety turn it off and work on it.

Fill it with problems such as a reverse-wired GFI, open conductors, 3-ways and 4-ways, etc.

 

[Karl H]

Demonstrate why a EGC needs to be isolated from the neutrals at a

sub- panel. Yet, be connected to the neutrals at the service.

Once, that is understood they will see why the current is elevated

to a high enough level to trip the OCPD, even though the EGC's don't

make direct connection to the neutrals in a sub-panel. With a good

explanation of course.

Also, one that I teach a lot is, If you make contact with a "Hot" and "Neutral"

on a GFCI protected circuit. The GFCI will not "Sense" a fault and open.

I've learned that if you first teach "Basic Theory" then the "Install".

You are giving "Future" electricians a reason "Why" following the

rules are so important. In my experience,those that do not have proper

"Basic Electrical " theory understanding,think that most of the rules

in the NEC are nonsense. I really like the saying, "The reason for every code

in the Nec is to prevent the dead body that created it." I just made that

up,But , it goes something like that, anyway.

 

[jumper]

I am teaching an intro to residential wiring class and would like to give the students some hands on expierience.I have a small budget for materials to build some kind of mock up wall or something along those lines any suggestions.

ditto to all above,plus:

talk to ECs in your area. most EC keep a scrap pile of old wire and probably have a bunch of old parts cluttering up the shop and will donate them to the school. its a tax write off. i have boxes of stuff left over from remodels that i dont use, exept maybe a few things for temp service.

also when i took resi 101 in school the teacher purposly used switches with no markings in order to make us use a meter to find the right terminals. good early lesson in trouble shooting .

imho ,knowing theory is what separates electricians from electrical workers. one knows what hes doing and the other does what hes told. karhs gave one of the best descriptions i have ever seen. the nec quote is priceless

 

[kvncopeland]

I use a sheet of plywood and attach an assortment of switches,recips, lights, relays, etc. and use different colors of THHN with alligator clips.This works great to teach theory such as series, parallel, combination circuits and the basics of how to wire and troubleshoot different types of devices without any waist of materials.I also use a switch as a master power control but for safety I pass the supply neutral through a keyless lampholder with at least a 300 watt bulb to help resist faults.You may need a higher wattage bulb depending on what your doing.