- Aerated Water
- Air Engine
- Air Table
- Are you Hot or Not?
- Balancing Act
- Bending Beams
- Block the gap
- Braille
- Bridge the Gap
- Chalk Wall
- Changing Faces
- Chaotic Motion
- Circle of Discovery
- Circle of Discovery- The Internet
- Circle of Discovery-Bridge Design
- Circle of Discovery-Ideas hub
- Circle of Discovery-Internet
- Circle of Discovery-Medicine
- Circle of Discovery-photography
- Circle of Discovery: Design - Earthquake
- Circulation
- Colour Wheel
- Communication Codes
- Communication Dishes
- Computer
- Crystallography
- Digestive System
- Down the Drain
- Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Fibre Optics
- Flight Simulator
- Gear Table
- Handshake Mirror
- Harmonograph
- High Flyer
- Hit the Target
- Horizontal Periscope
- Human Battery
- It's Electric
- Larger Than Life
- Lift Me Pull You
- Light Table
- Lock Box
- Making Waves
- Mini Harmonograph
- Mobile Phone
- Move It
- Nervous System
- Newtons Cradle
- Organ Pipe
- Organ Pipe Tune
- Oscillating Pendulums
- Pendulums
- People Power
- Periscope
- Prove Pythagoras
- Radar
- Radio Station
- Reactable
- Reflection Refraction
- Robot Arm
- Science of Sport
- Sensation
- Simple Camera
- Simple Circuits
- Smoke Tunnel
- Solar Energy
- Sound Waves
- Structures and Stresses
- Telescope
- The Exhibition
- The Eye
- The Lung and Chest Cavity
- The Wheel Race
- Thermal Imager
- Tornado
- Tower of Hanoi
- Universe Wall
- Up and Down
- Vertical Periscope
- Viscosity
- Viscosity Plungers
- Volume and Mass
- Vortex
- Watch Your Waste
- Weight Lifter
- Wheels Within Wheels
- Wind Tunnel
Simple Circuits
Activity.... Do – Think - Learn
To use electricity safely it needs a pathway, an electrical circuit to flow through. Various devices can be powered by electricity. The amount and strength of electrical current, and the direction in which it flows can be controlled by using different components.
Place the different components on the board.
What will they need to touch to make them work?
Try making the smallest circuit you can.
Can you make a circuit that uses all the components and works?
What is the difference between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC)?
What are wires made of?
The Science Bit
When a battery is connected to a conductor an electrical circuit is produced. Different materials are more resistant to the flow of electricity. Direct current (D.C.) is an electrical current flowing in the same direction (in one direction only) and is constant in value. Alternating current (A.C.) is an electrical current that changes direction at regular repeating intervals.
Curriculum Links
Using Electricity
- That everyday appliances use electricity, these include things that light up, heat up, produce sounds and move
- That some devices use batteries which supply electricity, these can be handled safely
- To make a complete circuit using batteries, wires and bulbs
- Explore how to make a bulb light, explaining what happened and using drawings to present results
- That an electrical device will not work if there is no battery or if there is a break in the circuit
- To make and test predictions about circuits that will work
- Say whether the evidence supports the predictions
- To explain what happened, drawing on their knowledge of circuits
- That these circuits can be used to make simple devices
Circuits and Conductors
- That a circuit needs a power source
- That a complete circuit is needed for a device to work
- That some materials are better conductors of electricity than others
- How to fins out which materials allow electricity to pass through them
- That a switch can be used to make or break a circuit to turn things on or off
- To make predictions about the effect including additional batteries in a circuit
- How to change the brightness of bulbs and speed of a motor in a circuit
- To make suggestions about what can be investigated and predictions about what will happen
- To plan to change one factor and keep others constant
- To make comparisons indicating whether the results support the prediction made
Changing circuits
- That the brightness of bulbs or speed of motors, in a circuit can change
- That there are conventional symbols for components in circuits, these can be used to draw diagrams of circuits
- That the brightness of bulbs in a circuit can be changed by changing wires in a circuit
- To suggest a question to investigate, to decide what to do and what equipment to use to test this
- To make fair comparisons and draw conclusions
- To explain observations in terms of knowledge about electrical circuits
Last Modified: 26/07/2011
