Teacher's Notes

Overview of the unit for 5th and 6th classes

This unit on electricity supports the main objectives of the “Magnetism and Electricity” strand unit of the primary science curriculum for 5^th and 6th class level. It revises what children have already encountered and extends the learning experiences.

Children area asked to consider a wider degree of areas such as the following:

Series circuits
Parallel circuits
Electromagnets
Semiconductors
Dangers of mains electricity

The unit helps children to develop their scientific skills such as observing, predicting and testing. Some of the activities within the unit ask children:

to make predictions about the effect of including additional batteries in a circuit
to examine how to change the brightness of bulbs in a circuit
to make suggestions about what can be investigated and predictions about what will happen
to make comparisons indicating whether the results support the prediction they had made

Within this 5^th and 6^th class unit the children also are helped to become more energy aware by thinking of their consumption of electricity. They also learn about Irish people who have studied electricity in the past or present.