Circuit breakers
View Sequence overviewStudents will:
- identify the essential components of a circuit.
- explain how electrical energy moves around a circuit.
Students will represent their understanding as they:
- connect a simple circuit of a battery, wires and bulb.
- draw a labelled circuit diagram to describe electricity moving through wires.
- participate in and contribute to discussions, sharing information, experiences and opinions.
- update the TWLH chart.
In this lesson, assessment is formative.
Feedback might focus on:
- Can students identify a battery as a source of energy?
- Can students identify the different components of an electrical circuit?
- Have students identified that all connections need to be made for electricity to flow around a circuit?
- Are students reasoning and making justifications based on evidence they have collected?
Whole class
Class science journal (digital or hard-copy)
Demonstration copy of Testing circuits Resource sheet (or create your own)
Stripping pliers (to strip the insulation from the wires if required)
Materials to create a word wall
Each group
1 x 1.5V AA battery
1 x 1.5V battery holder
1 x light bulb holder
1 x 1.5V light bulb (+ spares)
2 x 10 cm length of insulated wire, with the ends stripped of insulation (+ spares)
Cardboard
Sticky tape
Note: If no electrical equipment is available, the Circuit Construction Kit on the PHET website can be used.
Each student
Individual science journal (hard-copy or digital)
Testing circuits Resource sheet (or create their own)
Lesson
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkRe-orient
At the end of the previous lesson students were encouraged to ask their family members about experiences with blackouts. Discuss the different responses students might have received, focusing on how the person involved felt when the lights went out and what they did during the blackout.
Recall the challenges with the torch not switching on in the previous lesson and ‘wonder’ how a torch works.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIdentifying and constructing questions is the creative driver of the inquiry process. It allows students to explore what they know and how they know it. During the Inquire phase of the LIA Framework, the Question routine allows for past activities to be reviewed and to set the scene for the investigation that students will undertake. The use of effective questioning techniques can influence students’ view and interpretation of upcoming content, open them to exploration and link to their current interests and science capital.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to spend some time considering the mindset of students at the start of each Inquire phase. What do you want students to be thinking about, what do they already know and what is the best way for them to approach the task? What might tap into their curiosity?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkTorchlight
Draw on a student question (if one has been asked) as a jumping off point for the following investigation about how a torch works.
If students haven’t asked a question like this themselves, add it to the list of class questions and discuss how answering this question will be the centre of today’s investigation.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkWiring a circuit
Discuss:
- how a torch can be made with a battery, wires, and a bulb.
- how there may be different ways to connect the battery and bulb so light is produced.
- How can we test different arrangements of the battery and bulb to learn which arrangements will light the bulb? How can we conduct these tests in a scientific way?
Using Testing circuits Resource sheet, discuss the Predict and Reason steps of the PROE strategy.
Ask students to:
- Draw different arrangements of a battery, wire/s, and a bulb.
- Predict (P) an arrangement of equipment that will make the bulb light up.
- Record the reasons for their thinking.
- Share their predictions and reasons with a collaborative team.
Explain that when using low-voltage batteries (e.g. 9V or less) in their investigation, it is safe for students to touch bare wire because there is only a small amount of electrical energy coming from the battery. Any bare wires carrying mains electricity or high voltage (electrical energy) are extremely dangerous.
Note: If no electrical equipment is available, the Circuit Construction Kit on the PHET website can be used.
Allow students time to test their ideas of equipment arrangements in a collaborative team. They should:
- Construct and test the arrangement of equipment predicted by each student.
- Discuss their observations as a team.
- Record their observations (O) in the PROE.
As a class, draw or place the ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ connections in two separate groups.
Predict, Reason, Observe, Explain
PROE is a tool to engage students in the investigative process and support deep thinking.
This is an opportunity to introduce the PROE approach to scientific investigation, in preparation for more detailed investigations in later lessons.
PROE is a tool to engage students in the investigative process and support deep thinking. It can be implemented with a class, collaborative teams or individually to monitor students thinking and provide feedback to guide inquiry. It provides a structure for inquiry that encourages students to develop argumentation skills.
Before the experiment, students Predict what they think will happen in the investigation and give Reasons for their prediction. During the investigation students Observe what happens. When the investigation is completed, students Explain why they think these things happened and compare it to their prediction and the findings of others.
If the PROE approach is well-established in the classroom, students could instead be encouraged to explore different ways of connecting the wires. They should then draw pictures of two circuits that had lit bulbs and two circuits that did not have lit bulbs and explain why their approach did or did not cause electricity to flow.
This is an opportunity to introduce the PROE approach to scientific investigation, in preparation for more detailed investigations in later lessons.
PROE is a tool to engage students in the investigative process and support deep thinking. It can be implemented with a class, collaborative teams or individually to monitor students thinking and provide feedback to guide inquiry. It provides a structure for inquiry that encourages students to develop argumentation skills.
Before the experiment, students Predict what they think will happen in the investigation and give Reasons for their prediction. During the investigation students Observe what happens. When the investigation is completed, students Explain why they think these things happened and compare it to their prediction and the findings of others.
If the PROE approach is well-established in the classroom, students could instead be encouraged to explore different ways of connecting the wires. They should then draw pictures of two circuits that had lit bulbs and two circuits that did not have lit bulbs and explain why their approach did or did not cause electricity to flow.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkCircular arrangements
Discuss what the ‘successful’ arrangements had in common (a circular unbroken connection) and what the ‘unsuccessful’ arrangements were missing (broken connections or gaps in the connections).
- Which arrangements of battery, wires, and bulb made the light bulb light up?
- What happened when there was a single wire connected between the battery and the bulb?
- What was the same or similar about the arrangements that worked?
- What was the same or similar about the arrangements that didn’t work?
- Why do you think that arrangement worked?
- What do you think each component of the arrangement does?
Students record their representation of what a ‘successful’ arrangement needs in their Explain section of the PROE.
Compare (without making judgments) the different representations of batteries, wire/s, and bulbs that students predicted might work.
Compare the similarities and differences in how students represented the components.
Discuss:
- why it might be confusing, or even dangerous, for people to use different symbols to represent wires, batteries, etc.
- how students might represent the components so that everyone can understand each other’s drawings.
Electrical energy
What might be useful to know about electrical energy and electric circuits?
Electrical energy, like all forms of energy, cannot be created or destroyed. It can be transferred from one object (wire) to another (light bulb). It can also change its form from electrical energy to light energy in the light bulb. The light bulb does not ‘use up’ the electrical energy. Instead, it transforms it into light energy.
An electrical circuit is an unbroken path for electrical energy to follow. It starts at one terminal of a battery and ends at the other terminal of the battery. The battery stores chemical energy which is transformed into electrical energy in a circuit.
A common alternative conception is that a single wire is all that is needed to light a bulb. This arises from a single cord ‘plugging in’ to the main electrical connection. It is useful to compare the thickness of the two wires and explain that there are usually 2-3 individual wires in the cord of common devices. If it is safe, the cord of an unplugged device can be cut to show the number of wires involved.
Electrical energy, like all forms of energy, cannot be created or destroyed. It can be transferred from one object (wire) to another (light bulb). It can also change its form from electrical energy to light energy in the light bulb. The light bulb does not ‘use up’ the electrical energy. Instead, it transforms it into light energy.
An electrical circuit is an unbroken path for electrical energy to follow. It starts at one terminal of a battery and ends at the other terminal of the battery. The battery stores chemical energy which is transformed into electrical energy in a circuit.
A common alternative conception is that a single wire is all that is needed to light a bulb. This arises from a single cord ‘plugging in’ to the main electrical connection. It is useful to compare the thickness of the two wires and explain that there are usually 2-3 individual wires in the cord of common devices. If it is safe, the cord of an unplugged device can be cut to show the number of wires involved.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkThe Investigate routine provides students with an opportunity to explore the key ideas of science, to plan and conduct an investigation, and to gather and record data. The investigations are designed to systematically develop content knowledge and skills through increasingly complex processes of structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry approaches. Students are encouraged to process data to identify trends and patterns and link them to the real-world context of the teaching sequence.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment (Launch phase) that identified the alternative conceptions that students held. Are there activities that challenge these ideas and provide openings for discussion? What content knowledge and skills do students need to be able to complete the final (Act phase) task? How could you systematically build these through the investigation routines? Are there opportunities to build students’ understanding and skills in the science inquiry processes through the successive investigations?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkElectrical symbols
Introduce the following standard electrical symbols, used in diagrams to represent how components are connected:
Discuss:
- other examples of common/known symbols, for example:
- stop signs
- emojis to represent emotions (happy, sad, angry)
- the challenges that occur when the wrong symbol is used.
- how all representations are only useful sometimes.
Students select one of the diagrams of an arrangement of equipment that lit up the light bulb and represent it in their science journals as a diagram, using electrical symbols.
Representation and modelling
Creating representations of circuits helps students to communicate what they think in words and pictures.
Creating representations of circuits helps students to communicate what they think in words and pictures. They describe (by adding annotations or verbally) what the components of the circuit do—they are starting to create a model that serves to communicate their developing understanding of a phenomenon.
It is important to understand that all representations have limitations. Discussing the strengths and limitations of different representations support this understanding. One way to do this is to discuss the adequacy of a model (i.e. what it shows, what it doesn’t show, what affordances it provides). No model is perfect, so the discussions should centre on whether the model is “good enough” for its current purpose.
Creating representations of circuits helps students to communicate what they think in words and pictures. They describe (by adding annotations or verbally) what the components of the circuit do—they are starting to create a model that serves to communicate their developing understanding of a phenomenon.
It is important to understand that all representations have limitations. Discussing the strengths and limitations of different representations support this understanding. One way to do this is to discuss the adequacy of a model (i.e. what it shows, what it doesn’t show, what affordances it provides). No model is perfect, so the discussions should centre on whether the model is “good enough” for its current purpose.
The Inquire phase allows students to cycle progressively and with increasing complexity through the key science ideas related to the core concepts. Each Inquire cycle is divided into three teaching and learning routines that allow students to systematically build their knowledge and skills in science and incorporate this into their current understanding of the world.
When designing a teaching sequence, it is important to consider the knowledge and skills that students will need in the final Act phase. Consider what the students already know and identify the steps that need to be taken to reach the level required. How could you facilitate students’ understanding at each step? What investigations could be designed to build the skills at each step?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkFollowing an investigation, the Integrate routine provides time and space for data to be evaluated and insights to be synthesized. It reveals new insights, consolidates and refines representations, generalises context and broadens students’ perspectives. It allows student thinking to become visible and opens formative feedback opportunities. It may also lead to further questions being asked, allowing the Inquire phase to start again.
When designing a teaching sequence, consider the diagnostic assessment that was undertaken during the Launch phase. Consider if alternative conceptions could be used as a jumping off point to discussions. How could students represent their learning in a way that would support formative feedback opportunities? Could small summative assessment occur at different stages in the teaching sequence?
Read more about using the LIA FrameworkIntegrated circuits
Students share their diagrams as a class.
- Does it matter if the battery’s positives and negatives are changed around?
- Most light bulbs can have the flow of electricity move in either direction. This means the batteries can face either direction as long as they are connected to each other correctly.
- LEDs are unidirectional which means the flow of electricity needs to move in one direction only. This means the batteries must point in the correct direction.
- Should the wire lines be continuous?
- Yes. If the wires are not connected in the diagram, it means the wires are not connected in real life. This will interrupt the flow of electricity.
Introduce and discuss the term ‘circuit’:
- comparing it with other meanings of the word ‘circuit’ that students know, such as a fitness circuit or a course or track used in racing.
- what needs to be included in an ‘electric circuit’ for a bulb to work (compared to a non-working group of wires, battery and bulb).
- the meaning of ‘electric circuit’ and what needs to be included to meet this meaning.
Reflect on the lesson
You might:
- re-examine the intended learning goals for the lesson and consider how they were achieved.
- update the TWLH chart by inviting students to add what they have learned (L) and the evidence/observations that show how (H) they now know that.
- For example: “I learned that the metal part of the wires must be touching the battery for the bulb to light up. I know this because when we connected the part of the wires covered in plastic to the battery the bulb did not light up, but when we connected the metal parts the bulb did light up”.
- Students may need guidance in constructing these statements, particularly if they are not experienced with this.
Electric circuits
The main components of a torch circuit include a battery (or batteries), connecting wires, a switch and a light bulb.
The main components of a torch circuit include a battery (or batteries), connecting wires, a switch and a light bulb.
A circuit is a path for electrons to follow which starts at one end of the battery and ends at the other. Electrons travel easiest along conductors such as wires. The metallic case of a torch is often used as a wire in a torch circuit.
When you complete a circuit by turning on a switch, the light turns on before the electrons from the battery reach the lamp. When the switch is turned on, the battery causes all of the electrons in the wires to begin to move, rather like when you press on the pedals of a bicycle. The wheel starts to turn before the part of the chain near the pedal gets to the wheel. The whole chain moves as a unit, similar to what the electrons are doing in the circuit.
The main components of a torch circuit include a battery (or batteries), connecting wires, a switch and a light bulb.
A circuit is a path for electrons to follow which starts at one end of the battery and ends at the other. Electrons travel easiest along conductors such as wires. The metallic case of a torch is often used as a wire in a torch circuit.
When you complete a circuit by turning on a switch, the light turns on before the electrons from the battery reach the lamp. When the switch is turned on, the battery causes all of the electrons in the wires to begin to move, rather like when you press on the pedals of a bicycle. The wheel starts to turn before the part of the chain near the pedal gets to the wheel. The whole chain moves as a unit, similar to what the electrons are doing in the circuit.