All About Electricity

Analyze the Learner

My class is a fourth grade class of 24 students- 13 boys and 11 girls.• 14 of my students are white, 7 are African

American, and 3 are Asian.• One student has Asperger’s, four have ADHD, and

one has dyslexia.• Two students are gifted learners.

Since students are extremely diverse in their learning abilities, they also have a variety of learning styles. Therefore, I will be using various methods to accommodate everyone.

.ObjectiveAt the end of a week long unit, with a 75% accuracy, my fourth grade students will determine what static electricity is, model what an electric current is, compare electricity to magnets to construct an electromagnet in order to identify where we can find electricity in our everyday lives by using balloons and paper to see static electricity in action, creating “squishy circuits”, manipulating magnets, and observing an electromagnet; finally, they will work in teams to display what they have learned by constructing a light-up poster.

Monday:Watch school house rock “Electricity, Electricity” video. Discuss static

electricity and positive and negative charges using balloons and tissue paper.

Tuesday:Determine what an electrical current is and what a circuit is. Apply this information and create a circuit with “squishy circuit”, then discuss conductors and insulators.

Wednesday:Manipulate magnets and discuss their properties focusing on positive

and negative charges. Compare that to how electrical charges. Discuss how these are related and construct an electromagnet as a class.

Thursday:Watch “Electricity, Electricity” again. Brain storm how we use

electricity in our lives. Discuss safety when using electricity. Friday:

As a class review materials that we have to make our circuit light-up posters and safety precautions for using electricity. In teams, students utilize supplies to create posters.

Day by Day

Smart Board Computer Christmas Lights Light Bulb Art Bot (to make model wind mill) Squishy Circuits Batttery

Technology

Burrell, Tamara. Windmills. Houghton Mifflin Company.

“Science Made Simple” SCIENCE MADE SIMPLE, INC. Voorhees, NJ. 1996, 2000. http://www.sciencemadesimple.net/static.html

Squishy Circuits. Makers Shed. http://www.makershed.com/products/squishy-circuits-kit

Valentino, Catherine. Houghton Mifflin Science for Grade 4. Boston, MA. 2007

WORKS CITED