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Pre-Planning: / Anchors PA/Common Core/Standards
Pre-Planning: / Anchors PA/Common Core/Standards
Pre-Planning
TOPIC
Name
Subject
Grade Level
Date/Duration
Standards/
anchors/
competencies
PA/Common
Core/Standards
(Plus any others
as may be
required)
DETAILS
Justin Crotti
Science
4th
120 minutes
4.1.4.A
Explain how living things are dependent upon other living and nonliving
things for survival.
CK
Give examples of how energy can be transformed from one form to another.
3.2.4.B7
Formative
AND/OR
Summative
Assessment
Evidence
Objective
A-B-C-D
Bloom's Taxonomy
Webb's Depth of
Knowledge (DOK)
Formal Evaluation
Students will complete an online performance
assessment by building and completing a simple circuit
and a parallel circuit successfully. The Web site Make an
Electric Circuit Online at
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/elect/index.htm provides
instructions.
Informal Evaluation
Throughout the lesson students will be asked to
indicate thumbs up/down based on their understanding.
(Not provided in the state plan.)
Blooms
The second objective falls under creating since the
students are constructing a circuit.
Step-by-Step Procedures
RATIONALE for the
CK
Learning Plan
DETAILS
Introduction
Activating Prior Knowledge
When the students enter the room, have on the board
the question Where does light come from?
Hook/Lead-In/Anticipatory Set
Students will be introduced to the concept of electricity
by watching a short video with a catchy tune that will
have them looking for similar examples of electricity
right in the classroom. (This is the activity that the plan
provides, but there is no link to the video.)
The teacher will have a radio plugged into the front of
the classroom. He will have it on, and then suddenly
unplug it. The students will notice that it continued to
play. He will ask why and then describe the batteries
and how there are two different types of power, but both
are capable of powering circuits. (This is an alternative
activity in the event the link cannot be found.)
Explicit
Big Idea Statement
Instructions
A technological world requires that humans develop capabilities to solve technological
Big Ideas
challenges and improve products for the way we live.
Each area of technology has a set of characteristics that separates it from others; however,
Essential
many areas overlap in order to meet human needs and wants.
Questions
Technological design is a creative process that anyone can do which may result in new
inventions and innovations.
Essential Questions
How do energy transformations explain that energy is neither created
nor destroyed?
Key Vocabulary
Electric Current: A flow or motions of electrons. Electric currents in
wires are caused by electrons moving along the wire.
Series Circuit: A simple circuit where the flow of electricity has only
one path.
Parallel Circuit: A circuit where the flow of electricity has more than
one path from the same power source.
Accommodations,
Modifications
Turn on various electrical devices in the classroom (CD player, light, TV, etc.)
Ask students to give other examples of electricity they see in the classroom or
in their homes and how the devices are able to work. Once students give
energy as the answer, ask them to define it. Energy is defined as the ability
to do work or make a change.
If time allows, take a walk through the school and write down all the
appliances, devices, machines, etc. that use electricity.
Have students stand in a circle, close enough to pass items from one student to
the next but far enough apart that just their hands touch. Give each student a
ball (e.g., a tennis ball). Explain to students that they have to pass the balls
from one person to the next with each person only holding one ball at a time.
Give students time to complete the task.
Remove one student from the circle and ask students to pass the balls as
before. They should not be able to complete the task due to the open space.
Collect balls and have students remain in the circle.
Ask students to use different words to describe the two different scenarios.
Make a list on the board and be sure that open and closed appear on the
list.
Now tell students they are going to pretend their arms are the wires that carry
electricity. Have them touch palms to complete the circle.
Ask two students next to each other to stop touching each other and ask
students if the current is open or closed. Now have the two students each hold
one end of a metal strip. Now ask if the current is open or closed.
Explain that the metal strip is a conductor and as long as each student is
touching the metal switch, electricity can flow. If the switch is turned off, by
one student letting go of the metal strip, the current will stop or is open so that
electricity cannot continue to flow.
Wrap up the activity by explaining open and closed circuits and emphasizing
two things that are needed: a power source and a complete circuit. Explain to
students that wires in a circuit that connect objects (like switches, light bulbs,
buzzers, etc.) must start and end at the power source before they can work.
Thats why batteries have a top and bottom (+ and ) so they can carry the
Ask students to show their drawings of their completed circuit. Are they alike
or different? To simplify drawing circuits, there are common symbols to
illustrate each part. Show students the symbols for drawing circuits. Hand out
the Electrical Symbols Chart (S-4-5-3_Electrical Symbols Chart.doc) to each
student. Using the symbols for batteries, wire, and a bulb, draw a simple
circuit based on what students just did to light the bulb.
Now pass out switches and bulb holders to each pair of students and have them
light the bulb using the switch. Take a moment and compare these materials to
the ones they used to light the bulb in the flashlight. Now draw the simple
circuit using these two new symbols. Ask a student to draw it on the board or
overhead projector. Have students check their work.
Wrap up the activity for the day by reviewing what is necessary for a light to
work in a house or classroom. Ask students to think about if and how the
simple circuits can handle more than one light at the same time.
Part 3: What is a Simple and a Parallel Circuit?
Review the activity from Part 2. Discuss with students what one must have to
light a bulb and a simple circuit. Ask them how many bulbs they were able to
light in the previous activity. Now challenge them to see how many bulbs they
can get to light using their knowledge of circuits from the previous activity..
Have students draw their setup once they light as many bulbs as they can. Who
could light the most bulbs at one time on the same circuit? After applauding
their efforts, ask them to draw the setup and label the parts using the new
symbols. Ask students how they should label the pathways connecting the
batteries, wires, and bulbs. When they say circuit, write it on the board and
define it as a complete pathway from one end of the battery through the wire
and bulbs to the other end of the battery and through the battery again. This
is that continuous pathway for the tiny charged particles called electrons
that flow through the wire and carry the electric current. Sketch together
the circuit students constructed and label the parts. Students should have the
same in their journals.
Example of a sketch with information:
The battery pushes electrons from the negative terminal (where there are many
electrons), through the switch, the light bulb, and the wire into the positive
terminal (where there are not many electrons). As electrons pass through the
wire and into the light bulb, a special kind of wire inside the bulb, called a
filament, lights the bulb.
The circuit has been broken. The light bulb is not lit. The flow of electrons has
stopped because there is a gap in the circuit, and the electrons no longer have a
closed path.
Discuss as a class how many bulbs were lit on one circuit. What did students
notice about the light bulbs? (The more you add, the less bright they become.)
Why is this? (Each bulb draws on the energy source and they become
dimmer and weaker.) There are two basic ways in which to connect more
than two objects that use electricity: series and parallel.
A series circuit has only one path for electrons to flow. Components are end to
end in a line forming a single path. Ask students if they have put lights on a
tree, and when they plugged in the lights, the lights didnt work. If one bulb
goes out, they all go out. This is one of the disadvantages of series circuits.
A parallel circuit may have multiple light bulbs because it has more than one
continuous path for electrons to flow. Each individual path is called a branch.
All components in parallel circuits connect between the same set of
electronically common parts, or in other words they are connected across each
others loads.
Have students work in pairs and try to build a parallel circuit. How many paths
and bulbs can they wire with one battery? Have students draw their parallel
circuits and demonstrate them to the class. Discuss the results and use the
Series and Parallel Circuits handout (S-4-5-3_ Series and Parallel Circuits.doc)
as a reference.
Series Circuits
A series circuit allows electrons to follow only one path. All of the electricity
follows path #1. The loads in a series circuit must share the available voltage.
In other words, each load in a series circuit will use up some portion of the
voltage, leaving less for the next load in the circuit. This means that the light,
heat, or sound given off by the device will be reduced.
Parallel Circuits
In parallel circuits, the electric current can follow more than one path to return
to the source, so it splits up among all the available paths. In the diagram,
some current follows path #1, while the remainder splits off from #1 and
follows path #2. Across all the paths in a parallel circuit the voltage is the
same, so each device will produce its full output.
Extension:
Have students divide into three groups to debate the advantages and
disadvantages of parallel versus series circuits. Group 1 (series circuits)
and Group 2 (parallel circuits) will take turns arguing their side to a
panel of objective students (Group 3). The third group will decide on a
winner and explain why each group was given first or second place.
Group 3 must relate their decision to the information learned
throughout the lesson.
Materials
(reading,
technology,
equipment,
supplies, etc.)
metal strips
batteries
wire
light bulbs
switches
copies of the Series and Parallel Circuits handout (S-4-5-3_ Series and
Parallel Circuits.doc)
Closure
Other(This area
is to be
determined by
instructor OR
student as
needed)
Supervising
teacher
comments and
signature
Teacher
Self-reflection
What
worked?
What would
you
change?
Homework/Assignments
The students are to make a list at home of at least
twenty items that use electricity.