Magnets & Electricity
Investigation 5: Click It
Part 3
Choosing Your Own Investigation
Students hook up two telegraphs so they can send messages from one group to another.
3. Lesson set up and Management
1.1.4 Understand that energy keeps things running and comes in many forms.
1.2.1 Identify the parts of a system, how the parts go together, and how they depend on each other.
1.2.2 Know that energy can be transferred from one object to another and can be transformed from one type of energy to another.
2.1.2 Plan and conduct simple investigations, using appropriate tools, measures and safety rules.
2.1.3 Use data to construct reasonable explanations.
2.1.5 Record and report observations, explanations and conclusions using visual, oral, written, and mathematical expression.
3.1.1 Identify problems found in familiar contexts in which science/technology can be or has been used to design solutions.
3.1.3 Evaluate how well a design or a product solves a problem.
1. Science and technology are closely related. Science is knowledge of the natural world; technology is using scientific knowledge to modify the world to solve human problems.
2. A code is a symbolic system used for communication.
3. A circuit is a pathway through which electric current flows.
4. Electromagnetism is magnetism created by current flowing through a conductor.
5. Connecting two telegraphs for two-way communication requires two complete circuits.
3. Lesson set up and Management
Materials:
1. Keep your wire stripper handy. You will need it for the rest of the kit if your wires break.
2. Be sure to read Step 3 Page 16 to the class to discuss conserving energy.
3. The equipment tip on Page 17 is extremely important. It discusses why not to twist the wires.
4. Read and keep your manual open to Page 18 while completing this part of the investigation. Steps 5 & 6 are extremely helpful when trying to create the long-distance telegraph, and the picture of what the telegraph should look like is helpful.
These telegraphs are sending messages to one another from across the room. |
These telegraphs are sending messages to one another from across the room. |
Watching to see what message she is receiving. |
Student Management:
1. Keep all materials at the station at which they are working. Don't let them carry the materials around. Let the students wander and explore.
2. Keep Moving! If you are constantly moving, it will keep everyone on task.
3. When discussing questions, have students place their materials in the middle of their table or desks and have them place their hands in their lap.
1. You can lengthen or shorten the time on any lesson.
2. Use Pages 2 & 3 to help guide further inquiry at the end of every part.
3. Give students time to discuss their observations with each other.
4. Give journal reflection time.
5. Keep word banks and content inquiry charts up so students can see and have more time to copy later, if needed. It's nice if you can keep them up all the time and just add to them as you go.
6. Use tables or push groups of desks together so the materials don't get pulled onto the floor.
7. If students have spent a great deal of time trying to make their telegraphs work, find the group that is closest to the final result and help them finish their set-up. Once one telegraph is complete, encourage students to look at the set-up and try to make their's work.
Writing Support:
1. Reflective journaling on the day's lesson.
2. Start and finish each lesson with a KWLQ chart. ("What do I know?", "What do I want to know?", "What have I learned?" and "Are there any more questions to investigate"?)
3. Have students write all word banks and inquiries in their journals.
4. Students can create their own codes and write messages to send back and forth.
5. Students can use the original Morse Code in the FOSS Science Story book for sending messages.
Reading Support:
1. Read FOSS Science Story "Morse Gets Clicking: A Story of Samuel Morse."
2. Check the Resource section of the teacher's guide for more reading suggestions or the literature link on this site.