Electrical Conductors and Insulators Teaching Resources

Bring conductors and insulators into your electricity lesson plans with printable worksheets, activities and Google Slide templates created by teachers for primary science teachers like you.

You'll find Australian science curriculum-aligned resources, editable options and resources already differentiated for you to make science lesson planning easier!

This curated collection of conduction and insulating teaching resources covers key vocabulary like conductivity and electromagnetism and includes printable and digital versions of our most popular activities. Each resource has undergone rigorous review by a Teach Starter teacher team member to ensure it's ready to be used in your classroom.

Looking to get started on teaching about conductors and insulators, or just need more ways to make this science topic more engaging in your classroom? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a look at the difference between these two electrical concepts.

What Are Conductors and Insulators? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Looking for a simple way to define these for your students? Let's start with a kid-friendly definition of each and a way to tell the difference between them!

Conductors Definition

A conductor is a material that allows electricity to flow through it easily, while an insulator is a material that does not allow electricity to flow through it easily. Conductors transmit electricity, such as in power lines or wires connecting electronic devices.

Insulators Definition

Insulators are used to protect people from coming into contact with electricity, such as in electrical cords and the rubber soles of shoes.

What Are Examples of Good Conductors?

Do you need examples of good conductors and insulators to help students dive deeper into the concept? We've got you covered!

Some materials make better conductors than others, and the conductivity of a material can vary. Factors like temperature and the presence of impurities in a material, as well as pressure and even a magnetic field, can affect how well something conducts.

When something allows electric currents to flow through it easily, we call it a 'good' conductor. So what materials would be considered good conductors?

Your students may know many metals that conduct electricity well and not even realise they're good conductors. Here are just a few examples:

1. Copper
2. Aluminium
3. Gold
4. Silver
5. Brass
6. Iron
7. Nickel
8. Platinum
9. Sodium

What Are Examples of Good Insulators?

Insulators are important materials for safety because they prevent electricity from flowing through them. This means they can protect people from coming into contact with live conductors and getting shocked!

So what materials make good insulators? If a material has what we call 'high electrical resistance,' it makes a good insulator that can protect us from the electric current.

Here are a few examples to share with your class:

1. Rubber
2. Glass
3. Plastic
4. Wood
5. Porcelain
6. Nylon

3 Fun Conductor and Insulator Experiments for the Classroom

Simple science experiments in the classroom can not only engage students in learning about this topic but also help impress upon them the importance of electrical safety.

Here are a few ideas from our teacher team!

Fruit & Veggie Conduction Experiment

Are your students' favourite fruits good conductors? Find out with a fun experiment that helps students understand that some foods, like citrus fruits, can conduct electricity.

Students can use a battery, wires and a small light bulb to make a simple circuit, then touch different fruits and vegetables to the wires to see if the bulb lights up.

Explore Static Electricity With Balloons

Rubbing a balloon against your hair to create static electricity is an age-old trick, and it's a great in-class experiment too!

Have your students rub balloons on their hair or clothing to create static electricity, and take it to the next level by testing different materials to see if they are attracted to the balloons. The experiment helps students understand that some materials — like plastic — can become charged with static electricity.

Make Electromagnets

Explore how an electromagnet and how conductors can be used to create magnetic fields by making simple electromagnets with a battery, wire and a nail.

Students can wrap the wire around the nail and attach it to the battery, then test different materials to see if they are attracted to the electromagnet.