Electric Circuits Lesson Plan: Energy

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Electric Circuits Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Electric Circuits, and supports the standard of making observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by electric currents. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students:

• What objects in your classroom use electricity? How do you know?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the Electric Circuits topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Have students read one of the Related Reading articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Electric Circuits Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: EXTEND and DEEPEN

Students express what they learned about electric circuits while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• • Make-a-Movie: Produce a tutorial about electric circuits that answers this question: What happens when a switch is turned on and off?
  • Make-a-Map: Create a concept map identifying the steps for how electricity flows through a closed circuit. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a learning game that challenges players to sort materials as conductors or insulators.
  • Primary Source Activity: Examine the illustration of Sir William Watson’s “flying boy” experiment. Cite details to answer the accompanying questions.

More to Explore 

Time Zone X: Electric Circuits: Place historical events in chronological order in this interactive timeline game.

Circuit Construction Kit: DC: Design and build circuits while discovering if everyday objects are conductors or insulators.

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of energy transfer with these topics: Electricity, Current Electricity, and Batteries.

Teacher Support Resources

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students  to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Modifications for Learning Activities: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.