Electricty Activity

This is an amazing article, and a great way to reinforce the flow of electricity. I'm definitely using this to start our unit. I won't give them as much guidance, but make it more of an in... See More

This is an amazing article, and a great way to reinforce the flow of electricity. I'm definitely using this to start our unit. I won't give them as much guidance, but make it more of an inquiry lesson so they work through it as a team. Once we do that I'll do more with circuits and switches. I'll do more formal "teaching" at the end. I really love this idea!

Foundations for teaching Electrical Circuits

Using the 5E model, authors provide an activity for 5th grade and above to begin building a base for learning about electricity in a “hands on/minds on” fashion. In the Engage part of the a... See More

Using the 5E model, authors provide an activity for 5th grade and above to begin building a base for learning about electricity in a “hands on/minds on” fashion. In the Engage part of the activity, students are allowed to discover what happens when given a bulb, a battery, and some wires. The teacher then models potential and kinetic energy using a piece of clay and relates this to how electrons flow, providing a scaffolding link between the two concepts. In the Explore portion of the lesson, students use a rope to illustrate than in order for electrons to move, there needs to be an external source of energy (the battery). This allows more discussion and vocabulary to be introduced while modeling an open and closed circuit. In the Explain section, the misconception of the battery “creating” electrons is discussed, while helping the students visualize the electric current flow. In the Elaborate part of the lesson, resistance in the electrical flow is introduced and explored. In the final Evaluate, or sumnative part of the assessment, students are asked to draw and label models of electric circuits in their notebooks. I found this article to be short and easy to follow. I felt it did exactly what it stated it would do; showing “A classroom model illustrating a closed circuit for advanced learners.” I recommend this article to all teachers beginning the foundations of teaching electricity and circuits for upper elementary students.