SC.5.P.10.4

Students will investigate and illustrate complete circuits using a battery, wires, light bulb and various conductors and insulators. They will understand that electricity is a form of energy that can be converted into other forms of energy such as heat and light.

Type: Lesson Plan

Inventive minds have persisted throughout history. Inventors have improved our lives with inventions created out of a desire to solve a problem or make the quality of peoples' lives better. Our president is concerned that we are not keeping up with other countries in the area of engineering and inventive thinking. Why is this? As students explore famous inventions from around the world throughout history, they will decide what the best inventions of all time are and support their opinion with strong reasons.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of electrical energy, circuits, insulators and conductors in standards SC.5.P.10.4, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.2 by constructing circuits. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson helps students learn that electrical energy can be transformed into: sound, heat, and light energy. In this lesson, students will participate in a hands-on lab to explore what forms of energy electrical energy will be transformed into. This lesson can be completed in one 60 minute science block.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA students are presented with start-up business that needs to buy solar batteries for their business. Students will form engineering teams to review battery choices. Students will understand that solar energy is transferred into electrical energy.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows students to read and internalize information about solar power from the article "Solar-Powered Plane" from Time For Kids (1080L Lexile Level). After reading the article independently, discussing and answering the questions in pairs, the students get to go for a hunt around the classroom with a smartphone or scanner capable device to find the answers that are in the forms of QR Codes! This lesson can be completed in one 50 minute science block.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson contains three student experiments: How Light Travels, Comparing Light Sources, and Reflective Surfaces.

Type: Lesson Plan

Investigate electrical energy and how it can be transformed into different forms including heat, light, sound, and motion energy in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how electrical energy is produced from earth's natural resources. In this interactive tutorial, explore the process to power buildings and other electronic devices.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

A project challenge that uses an engineering approach to build a solar water heater out of common materials.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will learn about light energy including light waves with which the students will study shadows they make. They will also learn to relate certain forms of energy to real life scenarios by using illustrations. The students will learn how static electricity works and will even create some of their own in an experiment. They will also realize how light and heat energy are often involved in the same situations.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This online manipulative models and simulates common static electricity concepts such as transfer of charge.

Type: Virtual Manipulative