Month: This unit will take place over a time period of approximately two months. It is taught and time determined according to the specific teacher's current available schedule for instructional science time. The content will be taught two times every six day cycle (A-F) for 35-60 minutes, depending on the lessons. A differentiation period is also available on those days for 30 minutes to reteach, clarify and misunderstanding, or complete any unfinished materials.
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Essential Questions: This unit will focus on clarifying misconceptions of electricity that students may have. These misconceptions were determined by asking a series of inquiry questions which are aligned directly with the standards and expectations of state and district assessments. What is it that I currently know about electricity? Where does electricity come from? How do I use electricity? Is electricity always safe? How is it unsafe? How does electricity travel? What is a circuit? What types of circuits exist? What are conductors and insulators? Are magnets conductors? What is a magnet's role in electricity? |
Content: Discovery: Lightning, Benjamin Franklin, discovery of electricity Electricity: The origin and its path followed Circuits: Series circuits and parallel circuits, building and testing circuits Conductors and Insulators: Predicting whether common household items are conductors or insulators, testing items and recording on a data table Electricity and Safety: Every day uses, identifying hazards, and establishing rules for safe electrical usage Magnetism: Testing and determining a mystery object as a magnet by identifying its magnetic force. Testing a magnet on a series circuit for conductivity, identifying a magnet as an insulator, and magnetism use in the production of electricity. Vocabulary: Conductors, insulators, circuits, parallel circuits, series circuits, outlet, substation, grid, power plant, transformers, data table, magnetism, production, positive and negative charge |
Skills: Students will recall current knowledge of electricity prior to the unit while organizing their thoughts through the use of a K-W-L. They will analyze their learning on a continuum throughout the lesson and revise the K-W-L adding new knowledge of this topic. Students will use common household items and apply them to electricity by constructing a path for electricity to travel. The students will practice safe science lab rules by performing regular experiments with electrical circuits and test items. They will question the attributes of several objects, make predictions based on their knowledge of the topic, and test each item to confirm their predictions or clarify. The students will continue to inspect items, question their electrical abilities, and test them while recording and collecting data. They will analyze diagrams and text to determine electricity's capabilities and distinguish between safe and unsafe ways to use it. Students will identify electrical hazards. The students establish a personal connection by determining electricity's origin and path traveled to one's home through the use of diagrams as well as written explanations. The students analyze a mystery object, identify it, its attributes, and determine whether or not it is a conductor or insulator through the experimentation with an electrical circuit.
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Assessment: Pre-test is completed during lesson one, to assess student's previous knowledge as well as identify any misconceptions. Formative assessments are completed for the learning process and to guide instruction. Lesson Three: The teacher observes collaborative learning, working with science materials, following science rules, creating a simple circuit with three household materials, as well as recording thoughts in a journal. Lesson Four: The teacher assigns three written questions based on text analyzed during the lesson, they look for text based responses with the use of the textbook.
Lesson(s) Five, Seven, Eight, and Nine: The teacher circulates observing and redirecting students, giving guidance and positive reinforcements promoting inquiry. They observe students following science lab rules, assembling circuits correctly, making predictions, and testing their predictions. Lesson Twelve: The teacher will observe student's ability to follow directions presented in a website format. The teacher, along with the website, will be checking that the students read the text in order to complete the brief assessment through the use of a game design (making good decisions about electricity). Lesson Thirteen: The teacher will be observing student's ability to navigate through the website provided, analyze written text, and manipulate the learning activities on the site. These activities will assist in the student's identification of the origin of electricity. Lesson Fourteen: The teacher will be observing students analyzing and making predictions regarding a material's conductivity based on previous learned material. The teacher will be observing students working collaboratively with the circuits. Summative Assessments are given to analyze, determine learning, as well as continue clarification of the misconceptions of electricity. Lesson Ten: Assesses student's ability to test objects on a series circuit to determine whether or not they are conductors or insulators. Students identify attributes of conductors and insulators. They complete diagrams to illustrate the assembly of a series circuit as well as a parallel circuit. Lesson Fifteen: Students independently assemble a series circuit, check its functions, and test a series of items to determine whether they are a conductor or an insulator. They record their findings on a data table. They describe attributes of conductors and insulators. They describe how electricity was discovered and by whom. They sequence the order and places that electricity travels through to reach their home. They determine whether a magnet is a conductor or insulator as well as its role in the production of electricity. They describe how to use electrical items safely and identify three electrical devices that they use daily. |
Alignment: New York State Standards Standard One: Analysis, inquiry, and design
National Standards
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Classroom Activities Lessons: Lesson One: Pre-test to assess prior knowledge Lesson Two: "How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning" by Rosalyn Schanzer read aloud, and set up K-W-L Lesson Three: Discovering electricity by using three simple household items, making a bulb illuminate Lesson Four: Students analyze text and diagrams to determine how a circuit works, and what it is Lesson Five: Students assemble their own simple series circuit with three common household items; they determine the difference between open and closed circuits. They discover a new way to make the bulb light up. Lesson Six: Positive and negative charges, battery and balloons Lesson Seven: Assemble an actual circuit using materials and all components to assemble and test it. Lesson Eight: Students predict whether items are conductors or insulators while recording the predictions on a data table. Lesson Nine: Students test their predictions on their circuits while recording their findings on a data table. Lesson Ten: Summative assessment, (conductors and insulators) (series and parallel circuits) Lesson Eleven: Interactive website, (identifies electrical, nonelectrical, digital circuits, and locates conductors and insulators) Lesson Twelve: Website activity, students identify hazards of electricity Lesson Thirteen: Use of the website to learn the origin and path electricity travels to get to their home, cutout sequence graphic organizer. Lesson Fourteen: Magnets, their role in electricity and are they a conductor? (Data table and circuits) Lesson Fifteen: The final summative assessment of all knowledge learned during this unit
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