The game can help...
While playing the game, students will observe that the monsters start out with each making its own sound, and that the sounds are jumbled when listened to all together. The monsters must be properly connected in order for the music to be coherent. This is much like an electrical circuit, in that the parts alone do not do very much, but when properly connected, the whole is greater than the component parts and is able to do work.
Electricity Slideshow
The slideshow focuses on how something can be “more than the sum of its parts.” It shows how the meaning of a pattern adds a dimension that makes the expression of the pattern more than merely the sum of its individual elements. Slide 7 shows that when charges are aligned, electricity flows.
What The Textbooks Say
Most textbooks address the subtopic of pattern and alignment as part of a discussion of electrical circuits. Students may believe that a complete system is simply the sum of its individual components.