Author: Amanda McGarrigle

Term 6- Electricity

Background Information
The principal focus of science teaching in Upper Key Stage 2 is to enable pupils to develop a deeper understanding of a wide range of scientific ideas.
They should do this through exploring and talking about their ideas; asking their own questions about scientific phenomena; and analysing functions, relationships and interactions more systematically. At Upper Key Stage 2, they should encounter more abstract ideas and begin to recognise how these ideas help them to understand and predict how the world operates.
They should also begin to recognise that scientific ideas change and develop over time. They should select the most appropriate ways to answer science questions using different types of scientific enquiry, including observing changes over different periods of time, noticing patterns, grouping and classifying things, carrying out comparative and fair tests and finding things out using a wide range of secondary sources of information.
Pupils should draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings.
Pupils might work scientifically by: observing and raising questions about local animals and how they are adapted to their environment; comparing how some living things are adapted to survive in extreme conditions, for example, cactuses, penguins and camels. They might analyse the advantages and disadvantages of specific adaptations, such as being on two feet rather than four, having a long or a short beak, having gills or lungs, tendrils on climbing plants, brightly coloured and scented flowers.

In this unit the children will…
Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit
Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches
Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.

By the end of this unit….
All children will:
be able to use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram
be able to associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.
be able to plan a fair-test by recognising the control variables.
Most children will:
be able to compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches.
be able to use predictions to set up fair tests.
Some children will:
be able to take repeat measurements of data with precision using a data-logger
be able to explain the degree of trust can be had in results.

The children will explore:
What they know already (KWL grid)ime
Introcucing circuit diagrams and symbols - matching symbols and creating circuits
Game - Why bother repeating?
Illustrative fair-test – How will the number of batteries (amounts of Volts) affect the brightness of the bulb?
Drama/modelling - Using drama to develop children’s conclusions/explanations.
Investigative Fair-test – What affects the brightness of a bulb in a circuit?
fossils and figure out how they are evidence of living things changing. do we know about living things that have lived in the pahat We h materials allow electricity to pass through them?
Which metals are the best conductors of electricity?
What are the best conditions for dissolving sugar in the fastest time?
What is the best material for filtering?
Which changes cannot be easily reversed?

Key Vocabulary
Electricity, Volts, Series circuit Effects of electricity: Light, sound, movement, heat
Components: battery, bulb (lamp), bulb (lamp) holder, buzzer, crocodile clip, leads, wires, switch
Describing words: brighter, duller, slow, fast, quiet, loud Conductor, insulator, Resistance
Key Scientists
Thomas Edison (1847-1931). Inventor of the fuse. Benjamin Franklin (1706-90). Showed that lightning is caused by electricity.
Charles Augustine Coulomb (1736-1806). He invented instruments for measuring the forces between magnets and between charges. The unit for measuring an amount, or charge, of electricity is named after him. One coulomb (symbol C) is the amount of electricity that flows past any point when a current of one amp flows for one second.
Alessandro Volta (1745-1827). Invented the first battery. The volt, the unit of electromotive force, is named after him.
Andre-Marie Ampere (1775-1836). His studies allowed people to measure the amount of electric current flowing through a circuit. Thus, the current is measured in units called amperes, or amps for short. One amp is a flow of about 6 million million million electrons per second.