Power Boxes: New Representation for Analyzing DC Circuits

Abstract

Power Boxes are a new representation to provide students with a conceptual resource to analyze direct current (DC) circuits and to build conceptual understanding of energy and power use in circuits. Power Boxes are designed to provide an intermediate, conceptual step between drawing a circuit diagram and solving calculations. In this paper, we describe Power Boxes, provide illustrative examples of how they can be used to analyze series and parallel DC circuits, and discuss the limitations of the representation.