Lesson Planning Pack - Electricity
www.teachers.tv/series/lesson-planning-pack-electricity
Each pack in this new series contains a set of four videos on a specific topic. Two of the videos are Lesson Starters for use in the classroom, one is a Great Lesson Idea introduced by a teacher and the other is a Teaching Support video, covering professional development related to covering this topic. The pack contains written resources linked to the topic.
This Lesson Planning Pack for KS2 science focusses on Electricitiy. It includes resources for both teachers and pupils.
Lesson Starter 1: Things that Use Electricity
www.teachers.tv/videos/things-that-use-electricity
Heather is late for work so her friend Jason kindly offers to make her breakfast. But how many things do Jason and Heather use that require electricity to work?
To extend the discussion teachers can ask questions such as:
- Which kitchen appliance do you think used the most/least electricity?
- Electricity is great but it can be dangerous. Think about the appliances used what were some of the dangers and how could they be overcome?
- If you could only have 3 kitchen appliances in your home which ones would you choose to keep and why?
- Which of the appliances featured worked on batteries and which needed to be plugged into the mains?
Items featured in the film:
Electric tooth brush, kettle, radio, toaster, microwave, fridge, clock, washing machine, iron, watch, hair dryer, hair straigheners, calculator, mp3 player, mobile phone, mini torch, car (the car battery was used to operate the flashing lights, but is also needed to help fire the engine), door bell.
Background items also seen in the kitchen:
Coffee makers, cooker hood, lights, dishwasher
Lesson Starter 2: How Electricity is Used
www.teachers.tv/videos/how-electricity-is-used
This programme, filmed in Watford Palace Theatre, brings the real world of electricity into the classroom. This classroom resource shows many different items that can be found in a theatre that need electricity to work. The question is “what is the electricity doing?”
After viewing, to extend the discussion, teachers can ask questions such as:
- What health and safety rules do you think that the theatre technician has to follow to stay safe when using electrical appliances?
- How many different uses of electricity did you spot?
- Make a list of how electricity is used in the theatre to make sound, light, heat and movement.
- Which special effects could you make with your electricity components in the classroom?
Items featured in the film:
Theatre lights, water heaters, ice maker, lift doors, box office lights, television screen, computer, mouse, compuer screen, telephone headset, credit card reader, printer, mini vaccuum, ice cream freezer, lift doors, lift lights, coffee machine, milk steamers, microwave, cash register, exit light, automatic door.
Great Lesson Idea: The Apprentice Electrician
www.teachers.tv/videos/the-apprentice-electrician
Tracy Stuart, Year 5 teacher at Ripple Primary School in Barking, presents her lesson on becoming an Apprentice Electrician. The objective of this lesson is to get her pupils to problem solve using their current electricity understanding.
Working in groups and using their electrician’s toolbox, the pupils have to perform a variety of timed tasks in order to receive their certificate. Tasks include making a circuits with a light in it, making a circuit with a buzzer and making a circuit with two lights. Once these tasks have been successfully accomplished the groups are then asked to design and build a burglar alarm.
You may wish to show lesson starters Things that use Electricity and How Electricity is Used, as part of your scheme of work on electricity, to bring the real world into the classroom.
Teaching Support: Problem-solving with Electricity
www.teachers.tv/videos/problem-solving-with-electricity
This CPD video for science teachers, looks at what works well and what is difficult, about teaching electricity.
Rosemary Feasey, Primary Maths Consultant, Tracy Stuart, year 5 class teacher and Anne Fitzpatrick, science co-ordinator at Ripple Primary school in Barking, discuss what worked well in the Tracy’s lesson on becoming an Apprentice Electrician.
They then discuss some of the difficulties teachers have in teaching electricity as well as talking about “Personal Capabilities in Science”, the skills that make scientists.
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