The setting for this time period is in the 1940s during World War II. Electricity had been available for a few decades and was a crucial element during wartime. Planes, ships and submarines used simple electrical circuits to make their systems more effective. The development of devices to generate electromagnetic waves, such as radar, also occurred during this time.

Early electrical engineers designed generators that generated electrical charge and batteries that stored the charge. This charge was then transferred to motors that would power a specific device. A more powerful magnetron also was developed to generate stronger radio waves and served as the central component in radar systems. The two activities in this time period focus on these two ideas. The first involves the power  needed to operate a submarine and the second uses electromagnetic waves in a radar detection system.

Submarine
In this activity, students are asked to design an American submarine that will try to make it safely from the United States to Great Britain during World War II. The main threat to American submarines during that war was German U-boats, which typically patrolled the waters near the two coastlines.

To design the submarine, students will use the different control knobs to select the amount of power available from the batteries, the type of motor used and the number of engines. Each of their selections can have both a positive and negative impact on their journey.
 
Radar
In this activity, students will design radar sites similar to those used to protect London from German bombers during World War II. The radar sites used electromagnetic waves to determine if planes were approaching. These sites would send out powerful bursts of microwave energy and if the waves were reflected back, the operators knew that there was a plane causing the reflection.

Radar is just one application in which electromagnetic wave are used. The study of electromagnetic waves and their use in applications such as television, radio, and telephones is a large part of electrical engineering. To design the radar sites, students will need to make three design decisions, each of which can again have both a positive and negative impact on how effective their radar will operate.