Lesson Plan
Lesson 1: What is Electricity?
A 60 minute lesson designed to introduce the physical science of electricity.
Lesson Plan
This lesson contains a link to an external video. Please watch the video prior to presenting this lesson to ensure that the content is appropriate for your students.
Tuning In
- Turn a light on inside the classroom. Ask the students if they know what is making the light illuminate. Lead them to the notion that the light uses electricity.
- Identify other objects in or around the classroom that use electricity. Ask the students:
- What is electricity?
- Where does the electricity come from?
- How does it get here?
- Encourage students to share their ideas. Record these on the board as a class mind map.
Teacher Instruction
- Watch the What is Electricity? video on YouTube. Afterwards, display and discuss slides 5-7 of the It’s Electric! PowerPoint. Encourage the students to take notes and to ask questions where necessary.
Guided/Independent Learning
- Distribute the Introduction to Electricity Worksheet to the students. Encourage them to refer to their notes and/or the teaching presentation in order to answer the questions on the worksheet.
- Monitor and support the students as they complete the activities. Once the students have finished, review the worksheet. Encourage the students to share their answers and to make corrections where necessary.
- Collect the students’ worksheets. These could be included in a portfolio of work samples and used to assess the students’ understanding of the unit objectives.
Wrapping Up
- Introduce the Electricity Word Wall. Add the words ‘electricity’, ‘atom’, ‘proton’, ‘neutron’ and ‘electron’ to the display.
Differentiation
Extending Students
- Encourage fast finishers to write a paragraph in their own words explaining what electricity is and where it comes from.
Supporting Students
- Allow students who are finding the worksheet challenging to work in a small group with adult support.
Assessment Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- used strategic whole class or individual questioning
- observed student participation during learning activities
- recorded student progress on a checklist
- annotated student work samples
- collected and reviewed student work samples
- facilitated whole class or peer feedback sessions
- encouraged student self-reflection
- administered formal assessment tasks.
Resources
NSW Curriculum alignment
- ST3-8PW-ST
Explains how energy is transformed from one form to another
- ST3-8PW-ST
Explains how energy is transformed from one form to another
Victorian Curriculum alignment
- VCSSU081
Energy from a variety of sources can be used to generate electricity; electric circuits enable this energy to be transferred to another place and then to be transformed into another form of energy
- VCSSU081
Energy from a variety of sources can be used to generate electricity; electric circuits enable this energy to be transferred to another place and then to be transformed into another form of energy
Australian Curriculum alignment
- ACSSU097
Electrical energy can be transferred and transformed in electrical circuits and can be generated from a range of sources
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