We can finally understand the obscure myster of electric circuits by ignoring the conventional approach and instead looking at the details of surface charge and "static electricity." See this paper by Chabay and Sherwood (PDF) On of the few books which explain "electricity" correctly: " Basic Electricity JE-101" by Gene McWhorter, 1984, a RADIO SHACK book (out of print! Rats! Try his later version, The Electricity Book) There Are No Electrons, Ken Amdahl Very fascinating story-telling method for explaining basic electricity and electronics Paperback on Lightning (and misconceptions), for the general public: All About Lightning, Dr Martin A. Uman An excellent college-level physics texbook: ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC INTERACTIONS, by Chabay/Sherwood It unifies "static electricity" with the rest of circuit theory, and promotes lots of "intuitive/conceptual" reasoning rather than pure math A large, excellent collection of research papers on electricity misconceptions: ASPECTS OF UNDERSTANDING ELECTRICITY: PROCEEDINGS OF AN INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP, R. Duit, W. Jung, C. von Roneck (Eds), Verlag Schmidt & Klaunig, 1985 (QC530.A78 1985) (Order it through interlibrary loan!) Meaningful Learning Reseach Group: Proceedings of The 1st Int'l Seminar - Misconceptions and Educational Strategies in Science and Mathematics. Dr. Joseph Novak, MLRG 2nd Int'l Seminar 3rd Int'l Seminar 4th Int'l Seminar Ordering info (CDROM too!) LINKS List of Student’s physics misconceptions U. Dallas C3P project Paul B's Misconceptions References Chabay & Sherwood's References on the role of "static electricity" in electrical circuitry Misconceptions within textbooks, a list contributed by subscribers of the PHYS-L physics education group Some Papers: A study of science-in-the-making as students generate an analogy for electricity (1995) Mark Cosgrove, University of Technology, Sydney Learning and Understanding Key Concepts of ElectricityReinders Duit, Christoph von Rhöneck Teaching Intro Electricity, D> Psillos Connecting Research in Physics Edu. with Teacher Edu. McDermott, L.C. & van Zee, E.H. (1984). Identifying and addressing student difficulties with electric circuits. Proceedings of the International Workshop: Aspects of Understanding Electricity, Pdagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg, W. Germany, pp. 39-4 Shipstone, D. (1988). Pupils' understanding of simple electrical circuits: Some implications for instruction. Physics Education, 23(2):92-96. Some misc. Electronics Books I recommend

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