15 minutes Review today’s objective with students. We will be creating different types of circuits that will keep several bulbs lit brightly, no matter how many there are or if one bulb goes out. Read inquiry question with kids: Can you light several bulbs brightly with one battery? (#3) Students will complete the table in order to explore different configurations until they can light 2 bulbs brightly. First, all students will create a working circuit with one bulb and one battery to observe the bulb’s brightness. Then, students will be tasked with adding a second bulb to that circuit. Suggested questions to ask as you circulate: What do you notice about the brightness of the bulbs? Why do you think this happens? Monitor student exploration in order to elicit examples of circuits that light 2 bulbs brightly during whole class discussion. The discussion is an important component of student understanding the 2 different types of circuits. After about 15 minutes or as students are wrapping up the table, call students’ attention to the two Turn and Talk questions (#4). Project the Activity Sheet and review expectations for each column before setting students off to work on each task. Take note of different ways of creating the circuits so that you can call on these students to share. 5 minutes (#4) Students will Turn and Talk: Were you able to create a circuit that lights 2 bulbs brightly? How is this kind of circuit different from circuits with 2 dimly lit bulbs or 1 bulb? Call on students who had a successful parallel circuit to share with class. Discuss similarities across the solutions and point out how this type of circuit uses only one source, but both receivers have their own pathway for electrons to flow on. Draw or display the 2 different types of circuits on the board and discuss the difference. Series: Parallel: 10 minutes (#5) Read the situation in #5 with the class. Students look at a series circuit with 3 bulbs and then must design another circuit that will light them brightly. Remind students that when designing their circuit, they are not testing it with the
(6) Students will talk with a partner about what would happen if a bulb burns out in the series circuit (Circuit A). After their discussion, student pairs can test their theories together or it can be done as a whole class, depending on time constraints. sim, but using their knowledge from the class discussion above. They will be able to share ideas and test in #6. 5 minutes Introduce the terms series circuits and parallel circuits. Students will fill in (#7) the table on their activity sheet as each type of circuit is displayed/discussed. In my classroom, we have a Science Wall to anchor student learning. Each time new vocabulary or concepts are introduced, the word, definition, and an illustration/picture (often depicted by a student) are added to the wall. Students use the Science Wall as a reference throughout units. 10 – 15 minutes Show students a string of Christmas lights and tell them to imagine that they work for a company that produces these types of lights. (#8) Based on their investigation today, which type of circuit would be best for a string of lights? Why? Have students discuss ideas and then complete the short constructed response. If students need writing support, the teacher might provide scaffolding by guiding these students to use a graphic organizer of pros/cons for each circuit type or providing sentence frames. (i.e “A ________ circuit would be best for a string of lights because __”) Name _____________________________________________________________ Date_____________________