Electricityunit 1

Unit Title: Electricity
Content Area/Grade Level(s): 4th

Time Frame: Ten, fifty minute lessons
Stage 1 Desired Results
Established Goals:
PS3.A: Definitions of Energy: Energy can be moved from place to place by
moving objects or through sound, light, or electrical currents.
PS3.D: Developing a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation
to describe a scientific principle.
PS3.B: Conservation of Energy and Energy Transfer: Energy can be transferred
from place to place by electric currents, which can then be used locally to produce
motion, sound, heat, or light. The currents may have been produced to begin with by
transforming the energy of motion into electrical energy.
ESS3.A: Natural Resources: Energy and fuels that humans use are derived
from natural sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways.
Some resources are renewable over time, and others are not.
RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text
says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI.4.2: Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key
details; summarize the text.
RI.4.3: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific,
or technical text, including what happened and why, based on scientific
information in the text.
Enduring Understandings: Essential Questions:

1. Students will understand how electrical 1. What would the world
currents are related to energy. be like if it had no
2. Students will understand how electricity electricity?
transfers from place to place.
2.How does electricity
3. Students will understand how electricity is affect our daily lives?
generated and received at homes, schools, and
businesses. 3. How does electricity
4. Students will understand how to build and transfer from place to
design a simple circuit. place?
5.Students will understand the parts of a light
4. How are humans an
bulb and how electricity travels through them. example of good
6.Students will understand the difference conductor?
between conductors and insulators.
Students will be able to.

1. Students will be able to define and recognize the difference between current
electricity and
static electricity.
2. Students will be able to design a model while using the engineering and design
model.
3. Students will be able to explain how electricity is generated.
4. Students will be able to define and explain key terms related to electricity.
5. Students will be able to tell others why it is important to conserve electricity.
6. Students will be able to build a circuit that includes a load, source, and path.
Stage 2 Assessment Evidence
Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

Students will be given a pre and post-test as a way Students will complete
to measure cumulative growth. independent journal
Students will build an electrical circuit complete pages answering
with a path, source and load. questions based on the
Students will create a story map about how activity.
electricity is generated and sent to homes, Students will reflect in
businesses, and schools. their journals about
Students will build a circuit that involves a switch, what they would
light bulb, buzzer, and motor. change about their
experiments.
Stage 3 Learning Plan

Date Learning Activities:
Pre-Assessment
1. Review how energy is related to motion, heat, and light.
DAY 1 2. Define key terms relate to heat and building circuits
3. Create What we think about electricity anchor chart
4. Preview the unit
5. Read biography of Thomas Edison

DAY 2 6. Generate ideas for where there is a possibility of making an
electrical connection with batteries and the bulbs.
7. Complete trial-and-error sessions by trying to make a lightbulb
light up.
DAY 3 8. Review how the students made a light bulb light up and key
vocabulary from yesterday.
9. Investigate the parts of a light bulb with a hand lenses
10. Draw and label a lightbulb.
DAY 4 ow humans can be conductors.

11. H
12. E nergy stick experiment.
13. Read book Charged Up: The Story of Electricity

DAY 5 14. Story map the book independently
15. Create a story about generating electricity
16. Introduce Samuel Morse and Garrett Morgan
17. Review electricity.
DAYS 6 and 7 18. Build circuits with a switch. Turn on and off a motor, buzzer, or
light bulb
DAY 8 19. Consumers Energy presentation
DAY 9 20. Review
Day 10 21. Posttest

Materials List
Anchor chart paper

Sticky notes (used for exit slips)*
student journals from Cereal City Science *
D-cell batteries*
copper wires approximately 25 cm in length*
mini screw bulbs *
switches*
handlense
energy stick
piece of paper
aluminum foil
coloring supplies (markers, crayons, etc.)
Charged Up: The Story of Electricity
* indicates that one is needed for each student in your class

Day 1
Time: Approximately 45 minutes
Standard/Benchmark:
PS3. A- Definitions of Energy- Energy can be moved from place to place by moving
objects or through sound, light, or electrical currents.
Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):
Give students the pretest about electricity. Students should answer all questions to
the best of their knowledge.
Electricity is just one form of energy that you have been studying in the energy unit.
Lets review how energy can move place to place through motion, heat, and light.
Have students give examples of energy moving from place to place by:
o Moving objects (speed, position)
o Heat (temperature change)
o Light (transfers heat energy)
Learning Activities/Assessments:
1. Create an anchor chart for what students know about electricity. This is a working
document that will be changed throughout the course of the electricity unit.
2. Turn the classroom lights on and off. Ask students for their ideas as to what is
happening to make the lights come on, the radio play, the computer run.
3. Inform the class that in this unit they are going to explore electricity and how it is
related to energy.
Closure:
Preview the unit ahead. Tell students some of the exciting activities they will be
doing with electricity such as:
Building circuits
Learning about how to conserve energy
Seeing a presentation presented by Consumers Energy and receiving a Take
Action Kit.
Students will complete an exit slip about two things they would like to learn about
electricity.
Reflections: When giving the pretest, make sure that students answer all of the questions to
the best of their abilities. With a pretest, some students skip things they do not know, even
if it a multiple choice test. Make sure most if not all questions are being answered in the
pretest. If time allows, elaborate on the Consumers Energy presentation by showing the
class the video sent from them.
Day 2
Time: approximately 45 minutes
Standard/Benchmark:
PS3.A: Definitions of Energy: Energy can be moved from place to place by moving
objects or through sound, light, or electrical currents.
PS3.D: Developing a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation to
describe a scientific principle.
Tell students that inventions result from solving problems and it often takes many
trial-and-error sessions before a scientist achieves success.
Give students time to share some of the things they have learned to do through
trial-and- error without formal instruction. Example responses:
o Riding a bike, putting a puzzle together, learn a video game, etc.
Today, you will be learning about Thomas Edison, an inventor and pioneer for
electricity. In our activity today, you will have to do many trial-and-errors in order
for your experiment to work.
1. Students will read the biography of Thomas Edison located in their student journals.
2. Students will reflect on the question What do you think Thomas Edison meant
when he said each trial was successful because he learned something from it?
3. Have a class discussion about trial-and-error and what they believe Edison meant.
4. Inform the class they are going to become inventors like Thomas Edison and make
an electrical circuit that lights a light bulb.
5. Distribute one d-cell battery, one mini screw bulb, and one piece of copper wire to
each student.
6. Explain that each time the student fails to light their bulb, they must mark a tally.
7. Have the students take time to explore the materials to see how many combinations
they can create that will make the bulb light.
8. After ten minutes, if students are struggling to get their bulb to light, give students
clues that will help.
a. One end of the copper wire needs to touch the positive end of the battery,
the other, the negative side.
b. The wire must touch the metal part of the bulb.
9. After students have had time to explore, have them complete the writing responses
in their journal.
a. How many trials did it take for you to light your light bulbs?
b. What did you learn from your trials?
10. Share results in a class discussion. Have students demonstrate how they lit their light
bulbs.
a. They should notice that the metal tip of the bulb or the side of the metal
bulb base must touch one end of the battery. Then, a wire must touch the
other part of the bulb (base or tip) and the other end of the battery for the
bulb to light. If these parts are not connected, the bulb does not light.
11. How does building an electrical circuit provide a model of how energy can move
from place to place?
Closure:
Recall the turning the lights on and off from the previous days activity. Ask students
if they have more information that explains what is happening when the switch is on
and when the switch is off. This is your exit slip out of the door.
Reflections:
Overall this was a great lesson and the kids had a great time doing it. The next time I do it, I
would give students 2 pieces of copper wire instead of just one. It was hard for them to hold
all of the pieces together with the wire being so small. It is also important to warn students
about the copper wire heating up and if it gets hot to set it down.
Day 3
Materials Needed:
student journals
handlense
mini lightbulb
Standard/Benchmark:
PS3. A- Definitions of Energy

Energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects or through sound, light, or
electrical currents.
Have students recall how they made a light bulb light up in the last activity. They
should be able to identify the wire, battery, and bulb and explain that they need to
be connected in order for the lightbulb to light.
Today, you are going to learn the three main parts of a circuit.
1. Have students open their science journals to page 72. Explain to students that all
circuits have three main parts, which are listed on your journal page.
2. One part of an electrical circuit is the source, which pushes the electricity along the
circuit. Examples of sources include batteries and generators. Electricity that you use
at home when plugging in appliances is available because it was produced by
generators at power stations and transmitted along power lines to homes, schools,
and businesses.
3. The second part of an electrical circuit is the path. The path of a circuit carries the
electricity between the source and the load and back. In this experiment, the path
was the copper wires.
4. The final part of an electrical circuit is the load. The load is the part of the circuit that
uses the electricity. A load can use electricity to emit light, heat, or sound, or
produce movement or magnetism. Many household appliances and tools are loads.
5. Have students identify the source, path, and load of the light bulb circuit activity.
6. Distribute a mini lightbulb, lightbulb drawing, and hand lens to each team. Give
students time to investigate the mini light bulb with the hand lense.
7. Distribute a copy of the light bulb diagram. Label the parts of the light bulb.
8. Remind students that the bulb is the load part of the circuit. Electricity can flow from
the metal tip of the bulb, through the filament, and to the metal base of the bulb. A
complete circuit with all three parts is necessary for the flow of electricity through
the bulb. The battery must be connected to the bulb by a wire, and the bulb must
also touch the other end of the battery.
9. Look carefully and identify the metal tip, the filament, and the metal base of the
mini bulb. Recall how the wires and the bulb needed to be connected to the battery
have to be a complete circuit where the bulb lit.
10. The light is produced when the electrical current flows through the filament, which
heats the filament to a higher temperature. The hot filament emits light and heat
radiation.
11. Project the lamp circuit picture.
12. Ask students to apply what they have learned about lighting a mini bulb with a
battery to lighting a bulb in a lamp that is plugged into an electrical outlet. Identify
the path, source, and load.
13. Have students help you trace the path of the electrical current.
14. Explain to the students that in an electrical cord there are two prongs making up the
plug and two wires, one connected to each prong. The electrical current enters the
cord through one prong and returned through the other prong.
15. Play brainPOP video about current electricity.
Closure:
Ask students to list some things they have learned about complete electrical circuits.
An electrical circuit is a complete, unbroken path on which electricity flows
continually.
Identify the three main parts of a circuit.
Reflection: After completing this unit, I realized that students get confused between the
parts of a circuit and what they used to build the circuit. For example, the main parts of any
circuit are a load, source, and path. Students would say the parts of a circuit that we used to
build, which were battery, wire, and lightbulb. To solve this problem I created a rhyme and
every day before we started we would say load, path, source over and over again.
Day 4
Time: 45 minutes
Materials Needed:
energy sticks
computer for Flocabulary.
Standard/Benchmark:
PS3.D: Developing a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation to

describe a scientific principle.
Gather students in the back of the classroom in a circle. Hold up an energy stick.
Walk around with it to show students. What do you notice about it?
There are lights, wires, and batteries on the inside of the tube.
On the outside, there are two silver rings at each end that connect to the
wires.
Can anyone predict what will happen when I hold both ends of the energy sticks?
1. Grip both ends of the energy stick. Lights will start flashing and hear a noise.
2. Let go with one hand and the energy stick will shut off. Grip it again and it will light
up again. Any ideas why this is happening? Gather ideas from students.
3. Explain to the students that this is nothing more that a battery power circuit tester.
It can detect a small amount of electricity. It is so sensitive that it can detect a small
amount of electricity traveling across moisture of your skin through the silver rings
on the end. It is a safe way to test circuits, learn about electrical conductors, and
identify insulators that block electricity.
4. This whole unit we have be learning about energy, and humans are some of the
biggest and best forms of energy. Therefore, just like with heat, light, and sound,
you are a conductor of electricity!
5. Remember, a conductor is something that allows a current to move through it
freely. What was our conductor in our light bulb activity? the wire
6. A good conductor is usually copper, aluminum, iron, or silver. Humans arent the
best conductors, but since our body is mostly water, your body can be a conductor.
7. An insulator is something that blocks or slows down a current. What is the insulator
in this energy stick?
8. When I hold together both silver rings, I am a complete, closed circuit. What
happens if I take my hand off?
a. This is exactly what happens when you take your happens when you flip a
switch on the wall or a breaker box in a house. It stops the current from
going through.
9. Does anyone have any ideas for how I can make a larger circuit?
10. Join hands with one other person. Students will be surprised that the current will
keep on flowing the energy stick will light up. Ask, why is the current still flowing?
11. See how many people we can get to light up the energy stick.
12. Why do you think the more people we have, the less crazy the energy stick is going?
a. the circuit is not as strong.
13. Remind students that if anyone breaks the circuit, the current stops.
14. Have one student stop the current and explain we now have a broken circuit.
15. Head back to the table and add the terms conductor and insulator to their student
journals.
a. conductor: something that allows a current to move through it freely.
b. insulator: something that stops or slows down a current.
Closure:
Remind students that they watched a brainPOP video yesterday about circuits.
Students will watch Flocabulary- current electricity, as a recap of instruction today.
Reflection: This was a really fun activity, probably the class favorite for the electricity unit!
One thing that I would add in is to have students sitting in a circle instead of standing up
because then there is less moving and bumping into each other. I would also have students
make a prediction as to what will happen if we put a piece of paper in between two
students. Would it serve as a conductor or insulator? What about aluminum foil? Why is the
current still able to pass through? Try adding a few different materials in between students
to see if the current flows or not.
Day 5
Time: 50 minutes
Standard/Benchmark:
RI.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says
explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI.4.2: Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key
details; summarize the text.
RI.4.3: Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or
technical text, including what happened and why, based on scientific information in
the text.
These past few days we have learned how to build a circuit. These circuits have
only powered a lightbulb or an energy stick.
Have you ever wondered how big cities generate power?
1. Do a book walk and have the class discuss the title, cover photo, and key features
in the book.
2. Ask the students to look at the pictures and describe how some of the pictures are
similar to the activities they have performed in their unit so far.
3. Tell the class they will be mapping the book.
a. As we read through the book on the document camera, we will diagram the
book together, drawing pictures and taking notes on what we see.
b. Distribute a piece of paper to each student and have them take out their
coloring supplies.
c. The teacher should have their markers and anchor chart paper to draw along
with the students.
4. Label your anchor chart with the title How do we get electricity? Start to read the
book to the class.
a. The first stop on the map is the hydroelectric power plant. After reading the
page about it, ask a student to paraphrase the information. Then call on a
volunteer to think of a drawing to represent the hydroelectric power plant.
Take a few ideas and generate them onto your anchor chart. Students should
draw and label the same things you do on their own piece of paper.
b. Repeat with: transformers and pylons, power outage, alerting workers, fixing
the power, and what happens when the electricity is resorted.
5. Retell how electricity is generated and reaches our homes, schools, and businesses.
6. Compare static electricity in the storm to the current electricity in our homes.
7. What happened in the book to make the lights in the house go out? Cite evidence in
the book to support the ideas.
8. Samuel Morse was the inventor of the electric telegraph, in which a switch is used to
send information down long wires connected to a sound-making device. When the
switch is closed, an electrical signal (current) travels to the other end of the current,
where it causes sound, either a click or a beep.
9. Morse code is a code which certain combinations of long and short sounds stand for
the letters of the alphabet. BY sending these coded letters, the telegraph operator
can communicate with a person receiving the sounds at the other end of the circuit.
10. As more cars were appearing in cities in the early 20th century, confusion at
intersections causes many accidents. In 1923 Garrett Morgan, an African American,
invented the first automatic traffic light. This reduced the confusion at intersections
and saved many lives.
Closure:
Since students became inventors a previous unit, it is appropriate to close out this
activity with a Flocabulary about inventors such as Thomas Edison and Samuel
Morse.
Reflection I enjoyed doing this lesson with the students. Overall it taught them notetaking
skills, which is something that is important in the science curriculum. Everyone had great
drawings and learned a lot about how electricity is generated.
Days 6 and 7
Time: 45 minutes
Standard/Benchmark:
PS3.D: Developing a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation to describe a

scientific principle.
Ask a student volunteer to turn off the classroom lights. Then turn them back on
again.
Ask the class for their explanations of what is happening to make the lights go on
and off.
What do you think is the path, load, and switch?
How does the switch change the ability of energy to move from place to
place in the circuit.
1. Divide the class into teams of two. Each team gets 1 battery, 1 battery holder, 1
bulb, and two pieces of wire.
2. Explain to students it is their job to make a circuit that will light a lightbulb.
3. When students have successfully completed their circuit, demonstrate how to open
the circuit by unscrewing the bulb so there is no longer contact.
a. What is happening when you open your circuit?
b. What is the load, source, and path in your circuit?
4. Students should recognize that when the bulb is moved to touch the metal strip on
the bulb holder, the bulb lights and the circuit is closed. When it is moved off of the
metal strip, the bulb does not light up and the circuit is open.
5. Today, you will be using material to design a model of an electrical switch that can
turn the light bulb on and off.
6. Students will complete the engineering and design process with their partner to
sketch and design model of their circuit.
7. Once approved by the teacher, the students can start building their circuits, which can
include a motor running, a buzzer, or lighting a light bulb.
8. If you notice that students are having trouble with their design process, regroup as a
class and remind them all of the parts that are needed for a circuit to work.
9. Students more than likely than not only have the chance to do their engineering and
design process today.
10. On day 2, have a class discussion about what is going well for the students, and what
is not working for them. Perhaps having feedback from their peers will change their
process.
11. Give students an appropriate amount of time to finish building their circuits.
12. For any fast finishers, they will reflect in their student journals about the process.
13. Present the circuits to the class.
Closure
Have a class discussion about what was the hardest/ most challenging parts of
building your circuits. What worked? What didnt?
Explain to students that tomorrow they will have a chance to learn the struggles and
trial-and-error process of inventors.
Reflection
The students loved this experiment. Two days were needed due to the engineering and
design process. Once students were able to make one complete circuit with a switch, then
they could incorporate several elements into their circuit like a buzzer and light bulb. I also
had to remind students that circuit means circle, and their design had to be a circle and not
a straight line.
Day 8
Time: 1 hour
Standard/Benchmark:
ESS3.A: Natural Resources: Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from
natural sources, and their use affects the environment in multiple ways. Some
resources are renewable over time, and others are not. (4-ESS3-1)
This whole unit you have been learning how to produced energy and make
electrical currents flow.
However, did you know wasting energy is a huge problem around the world?
Today we will go to an assembly presented by Consumers Energy that will tell

you easy ways to conserve electricity.
Does anyone have any ideas for how we can do this?

Taking shorter showers
Unplugging electronics when you are not using them
Turning off the lights in the room when we are not using them.
Watch the video previewing the Consumers Energy presentation before walking
down the the assembly.
Closure:
Students will receive a take home kit including energy saving lightbulbs, a shower
head, a timer for the shower, and more.
Remind students the importance of using these items to conserve electricity.
Have a class discussion about students found surprising about the assembly and
their plans to help conserve electricity in their homes.
Reflection
I would recommend this presentation to any school! The

presentation kept the student engaged and wanting to
learning. The school can also receive a grant of $100 if students turn in the survey about
their think energy kits.
Day 9
Review
Standard/Benchmark: n/a
Today, we will review all you have learned about circuits, light bulbs, conserving
electricity, and more.
Review with students all of their key terms and ideas they have taken away from
this science unit.
Review with plickers, an interactive way for students to review with the teacher.
Watch the Flowcabulary one last time about electricity.
Closure:
Ask for any final thoughts or questions on electricity. Remind students they will
have a posttest the following day about electricity.
Day 10
Posttest
Standard/Benchmark: n/a
Today, you will take a posttest as a way to close our electricity unit.
Pass out Posttest to class.

When they are finished, they will complete the activity page which includes
inventing an energy robot and writing how it uses different forms of energy.
Have students share their robots with the class on the document camera and
explain how it uses different forms of energy
Closure:
Talk to students about their favorite activities and experiments regarding the
electricity unit.
Conclude the electricity unit by reviewing the anchor chart for what they knew
about electricity and update it now that the unit is completed.

Electricityunit 1

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Electricityunit 1

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Unit Title: Electricity

Content Area/Grade Level(s): 4th

Stage 1 Desired Results

Enduring Understandings: Essential Questions:

Students will be able to.

Stage 2 Assessment Evidence

Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

Stage 3 Learning Plan

5. Read biography of Thomas Edison

DAY 4 ow humans can be conductors.

13. Read book Charged Up: The Story of Electricity

DAY 8 19. Consumers Energy presentation

DAY 9 20. Review

Day 10 21. Posttest

Anchor chart paper

* indicates that one is needed for each student in your class

Time: Approximately 45 minutes

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

PS3. A- Definitions of Energy

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

PS3.D: Developing a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation to

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

PS3.D: Developing a model using an analogy, example, or abstract representation to describe a

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

Today we will go to an assembly presented by Consumers Energy that will tell

Does anyone have any ideas for how we can do this?

I would recommend this presentation to any school! The

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

Motivation/Accessing Prior Knowledge (The Hook):

Pass out Posttest to class.

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