Teaching activity – Conducting electricity
This resource for level 3–4 students focuses on developing students’ scientific thinking in the context of electrical circuits.
About this resource
Different materials behave in different ways.
Asking children to test items and record their results encourages them to observe carefully and think about how things are the same or different. This provides opportunities to extend their experiences of the natural world, build their language, and develop an understanding of how the natural world can be represented.
Teaching activity - Conducting electricity
Curriculum links
Level 3 and 4
Nature of Science: Investigating in science
Students will:
- build on prior experiences and work together to share and examine their own and others’ knowledge
- ask questions, find evidence, explore simple models, and carry out appropriate investigations to develop simple explanations.
Level 3 and 4
Nature of Science: Communicating in science
Students will:
begin to use a range of scientific symbols, conventions, and vocabulary.
Level 3 and 4
Material World: Properties and changes of matter
Students will:
group materials in different ways, based on the observations and measurements of characteristic physical properties of a range of different materials.
Level 3 and 4
Physical World: Physical inquiry and physics concepts
Students will:
explore, describe, and represent patterns and trends for everyday examples of physical phenomena, such as electricity.
Mātauranga Māori
Light features prominently in te ao Māori. Light entered the world when Tāne forced apart his earth mother, Papatūānuku, and sky father, Rangi. On the marae, this first light is referred to as te ao Mārama. See Te Ara’s Whakapapa of light and darkness for more.
Resource overview
Different materials behave in different ways.
Asking children to test items and record their results encourages them to observe carefully and think about how things are the same or different. This provides opportunities for children to extend their experiences of the natural world, build their language, develop the science capability of gathering and interpreting data, and grow their understanding of how the natural world can be represented.
Learning intentions / Success criteria
Students will:
- construct an electrical circuit
- collect data as to which items conducted electricity or not (gather and interpret data)
- interpret their data (gather and interpret data)
- discuss the benefits of different means of recording (critique evidence).
Learning activity
- A simple electrical circuit made using a 1.5-volt battery in a battery-holder, a 2.5-volt bulb in a bulb holder, wires, and metal paper clips
- Objects made from a variety of substances, for example, a metal nail, fabric, ballpoint pen, aluminium foil, wooden or plastic pegs, steel wool, or a coin.
- What is a metal? Can you see anything in the room that is metal? What metals can you think of at home?
- What is not a metal?
- Are all shiny things metals?
- Are all metals shiny?
- What tests could you carry out to decide if something is a metal?
A common misconception is that all metals are magnetic. It is important that students’ ideas are all accepted at this stage as they will investigate ways to make more discriminating decisions in future.
- Explain to students that one pattern that can separate metals from other types of materials is that metals conduct electricity.
- Set up the circuit according to the diagram above.
- Explain that because metals conduct electricity, a metal object will complete the electrical circuit and the light will go on.
- Model this by testing the circuit with one metal object and then with a non-metal object. As you do this, model the making-a-prediction-and-testing method as follows:
- Choose a metal object.
- State, “I think this is a metal. I predict it will make the light go on."
- Test your prediction by placing the object in the circuit.
- State the result, “My prediction was right!”
- Repeat the process with the non-metal object. “This is a non-metal, so I predict it will not make the light go on.”
- Decide, with the students, how to report their findings as they test each object. For example, they could draw and label the results, make a chart and tick or cross off each item, write a sentence for each item, or make an oral statement. Very young students might sort their items into containers to indicate if they made the light go on or not. If students choose different methods, it enables them to reflect later on which method was best for which element of the procedure – ease of recording, ease of reading, and ease of interpreting results.
- For each object, ask students to:
- predict whether they think it will make the light go on
- test their prediction
- place the object in one of two groups: either “It made the light go on” or “It didn’t make the light go on”.
- When all items have been tested, ask the class whether they think the statement, “Only metals make the light go on” is true or false, and give a reason for their answer.
- Help them test their answers by:
- Encouraging them to find out more about each object
- Finding and testing more objects to confirm their ideas.
- Did any of the results surprise you? Why or why not?
- What are the different ways we can record our findings?
- Which method of recording results worked best? Why?
Use the learning from this activity to develop electric circuits that demonstrate cause and effect - see Homemade switches from Exploratorium for some inspiration.
The Science Learning Hub – Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao has some useful explanations, activities, and examples of how the ideas from this activity relate to everyday life:
- Testing for conductivity
- Electricity and sensors
- Making an electromagnet
- Electricity could be explored further in the context of static electricity.
While electricity can be used to identify metals, there are other characteristics of metals too:
- Malleability – the ability to be hammered into sheets
- Ductility – the ability to be drawn into wires
- Conductivity – the ability to conduct heat.