No, not really.
We did 3 days of electricity with 4th graders at Unionville Elementary. We talked about energy and electrical energy (& chemical & solar & heat…), batteries, conductors, insulators, transformation…A bunch of Q & A (not always directly related..but that works still). They each got several 5 mm LED’s and a CR2032 battery and had the task of lighting one bulb, then they could explore with multiple bulbs. We had discussions on the “correct” way to light an LED (long leg to +) and how they would remember that. A new explanation was that the battery was a small circle on one side and bigger circle on the other side, so the small leg went to the small circle. (AWESOME!)
On Day 2 we got to use copper tape to make a simple circuit, then a parallel circuit. Some had to be reminded of yesterdays work with multiple bulbs, how not all colors work together. Yes, there is a series circuit on the sheet, but we didnt have time today.
Day three we did the real fun part, a light up card (I know, I skipped the series circuit – but they will be doing more with circuits later on). I had some snow people printed for them to choose from. They were supposed to pick 1 (one) thing to light up, but some had to choose 2. They needed to put a dot on the inside of the “card” where the light went, then draw the path for the copper tape. I went around and checked paths and corrected a few. They could color their snowman scene if they wanted, and most did. There was lots of excitement in the air when they got them to work.
link to 8 snow people
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F8YCh6Daa83jBVurOydydS3IY87h9NYf/view?usp=drive_link
link to 3 circuits on 1 sheet
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v5z_rfu-4-ozmaNzWIJ5BfklhWllLy6A/view?usp=sharing
makerspaces.com has nice templates where you make a switch out of brad & paperclip (firetruck, police car, stop light, school bus
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