Ledyard Public Schools

Grade 4 Science Curriculum

Unit of Study: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY

Suggested Time: 8 Weeks

Content Standard 4.4 Electrical and magnetic energy can be transferred and transformed. Electricity in circuits can be transformed into light, heat, sound and magnetic effects. Magnets can make objects move without direct contact between the object and the magnet.

Essential Question:What is the role of energy in our world?

Focus Question #1 What is a simple circuit?

Expected performances (B14)  The student will be able to:

a. explain electric current (constant flow of electrons.)

b. explore how energy is transferred through a simple circuit (e.g. batteries, wires, bulbs) in order to light a bulb.

c. draw pictures and schematic diagrams to represent simple circuits and to communicate understandings.

d. describe how batteries and wires can transfer energy to light a bulb.

 

Required Activities:

NOTE:  All activities are found in the appendix

Teacher notes:  Prepare Ziploc baggies of materials.  Cut apart holiday bulbs and strip wires.  SAFETY:  Caution students not to bring wires or circuit testers near any electrical outlets in the room.  It is suggested that students keep science journals/notebooks.  (Refer to teacher resource Science Notebooks, Writing About Inquiry by Brian Campbell for appropriate models for written response and scientific drawings.)

 

Assessment:

Given drawings of circuits, students will identify those circuits that cause bulbs to light, trace the flow of electricity in circuits that do light, and explain using written response how a closed circuit operates.

 

Optional Activities:

Have students design a way to test some of their questions resulting from investigations with batteries and bulbs.

Focus Question #2 What kinds of materials conduct electricity?

Expected performances (B15)  The student will be able to:

a. classify materials as conductors and insulators.

b. use simple electrical circuits to determine what materials conduct electricity.

c. examine how electric circuits allow electrical energy to be changed into other forms of energy (heat, light, sound, motion) (toaster, light bulb, speaker, blender.)

 

Required Activities:

1. Students make a circuit tester to identify materials that conduct electricity.  Activity 3 “What other materials could we use instead of or with wires?”  CT Academy  (B15a,b  BINQ1,3,4,5,6)

2. Students make a switch and explain how it works.  “Make a Switch”  AIMS  (see Appendix)  (B14b,d)

3. Go With the Flow, Curriculum Embedded Performance Task by CSDE (see Appendix)

4. Students use informational text and/or internet sites to find out how electricity is changed into other forms of energy by seeing how an appliance works (such as a toaster, light bulb, speaker, blender, etc.)  (B14c  BINQ8)  (Technology standard 5)

 

Assessment:

Given three objects, students test and record observations to see if the objects are a conductor or non-conductor.  Students explain in writing their judgment of the difference between conductors and non-conductors.

 

Optional Activities:

Students construct a Circuit Quiz Board using a topic of their choice.  “Circuit Quiz Board”  AIMS (see Appendix) 

Focus Question #3 What are the properties of magnets?

Expected performances (B16)  The student will be able to:

a. explore and describe the properties of magnets and how they can be used to make objects move (forces of attraction and repulsion)

b. examine how magnets can be used to separate mixtures of solid materials.

Required Activities:

1. Students use a magnet to identify and sort objects in the room into those that are attracted to magnets and those that are not.  Activity 4 “How do Magnets Work?”  CT Academy  (B16a  BINQ1,3,4,5,6)

2. Students use batteries and wires to produce a magnetic field by coiling the wire around different objects as cores.  Activity 5 “How Can we Make a Magnet With our Wires and Cells?”  CT Academy  (B16a  BINQ1,3,4,5,6)

3. Students use a magnet to separate different mixtures (such as beach sand, Cheerios, etc.)  (B16b  BINQ1,3)

4. Students design an investigation to answer a question they have involving magnets.  Activity 6 “Experimenting with Electromagnets”  CT Academy  (B16a  BINQ1,2,3,4,5,6,8)

 

Assessment:

Students will write a journal entry in their science notebook to describe how magnets interact with each other and with other things in the classroom.  Drawings may be included.

 

Vocabulary

• Battery – a device that can produce an electric current as a result of a chemical charge in it

• Circuit – a complete path of conductors that an electric current can flow through

• Conductor – a material that allows heat energy or electricity to pass through it easily

• Electric Current – a flow of electric charge through something

• Electricity – a form of energy that is produced when electrons move from one place to another place

• Electrons – a particle with a negative charge

• Filament – a fine wire that becomes hot and produces light when an electric current passes through it

• Insulator – a material through which an electric current will not pass

• Magnet – an object that attracts iron and other magnetic materials

• Switch – a device used to turn the electrical current in a circuit on or off

• Wire – a metal strand used to connect electrical devices in a circuit

 

Optional Activities:

See Curriculum Connections

 

Resources Needed:

Student:

Teacher:

Internet:

(Type in item, click on “printable version” to print)  www.howstuffworks.com

Interactive website:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/8_9/circuits_conductors.shtml

Interactive website:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/electricity.shtml

 

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Art: Students create a collage of all the ways they use electricity in their home.

Health: Students discuss safety involving electricity.

Interdisciplinary: Students wire circuit boards to match questions and answers using a topic of interest.

Language Arts: Students write to a prompt imagining what life would be like without electricity.

Social Studies: Students research famous people in science such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Lewis Latimer.

Technology: Students research how a flashlight works.

 

STS Materials list:

Materials for each group of students: 

Colored holiday lights (to be cut up and wires stripped) 10 bulbs/group, 5 short wires per group

Colored holiday lights (cut up and wires stripped) 10-15 bulbs/group, bagged

Cells:  1.5 volt (D, C, AA, or AAA – 2 similar cells/group, class collection can be mixed)

Magnets:  (1” diameter ceramic magnets, 2/group)

Wire:  1 meter long piece of bell (single strand) or 22 gauge (multi-strand) wire per group

Pencil, straw, steel nail (16d-3½” common) for electromagnet

Masking tape, miscellaneous “conductors and non-conductors” for electromagnets

2-3 gallons of dry beach sand

Wire strippers

Small paper clips

Brass paper fasteners (½”)

 

Bold face indicates CORE expected performances to be assessed by CMT.

 

Ledyard Public Schools

Approved by Instructional Council on 4/10/2006