Electric Circuits
Lesson 16
Wiring and Lighting the House
Students apply the knowledge gained in the unit and wire their model house.
3. Lesson Set-up and Management
4-5 PS3A Energy has many forms, such as heat, light, sound, motion, and electricity.
4-5 PS3B Energy can be transferred from one place to another.
4-5 PS3E Electrical energy in circuits can be changed to other forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, and motion. Electric circuits require a complete loop through conducting materials in which an electric current can pass.
- Students use their plan in order to wire a house.
- Students create circuits in order to light each of the room in their model house.
3. Lesson Set-Up and Management
Materials:
- Have additional materials ready for students to use. They will need extra wires, especially longer wires. Depending on the size of each group, you may want to have extra batteries available as well.
- You will need to set-up the boxes for students to use; if you have parent volunteers, they could do this.
- Have students bring in materials from home if they would like to
decorate the house.
 |
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| House wired with parallel
circuit on top floors and decorated with ample furniture and figurines |
Attaching the bulb. |
Student Management:
- Have a task for each student to complete; some students do most of the work for the group.
- Students often create four separate simple series circuits to light each room. Encourage them to try more difficult circuit configurations.
- This lesson can be very frustrating for students; working together can be a challenge—especially when students cannot get the bulbs to light. Review expectations for working through any challenges that arise.
- Decorating the house can be a distraction. Make sure students first focus on wiring the house using the knowledge they have gained in the unit. Making the house visually appealing is secondary.
- If students are struggling, you might pause for several minutes and have groups do a museum walk around the classroom. Sometimes seeing how other groups are meeting the challenge helps groups who are stuck.
Writing Support:
- A reflection question could be: What were the challenges you faced when wiring your house? How did you solve these problems? This can be used during the presentations in the Final Steps section.
Reading Support:
- Wired by Anastasia Suen can be used after this lesson to help students see the differences between how their model house is wired and how a real house is wired; it also has information on how electricity gets to homes. It is also helpful to illustrate that student’s experiences in this unit do not qualify them to work on the wiring in their homes.
Last updated 6/17/2009