Year+4+Science

Year 4 || =Circuits and conductors=
 * SCIENCE


 * Information ||

Objectives
• To know how to change the brightness of bulbs in a circuit • To make suggestions about what can be investigated and predictions about what will happen when trying to change the brightness of bulbs • To make comparisons indicating whether results support predictions made

Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should: • know the names of devices commonly used in simple circuits; • be able to name appliances at home and in school that use either mains electricity or batteries; • understand that a device will not work unless the circuit is complete.

Vocabulary
circuit, battery, switch, bulb, break, electrical conductor

Resources
• data projector or interactive whiteboard linked to a laptop • ICT suite or set of laptops • an experiment writing frame • Cards that show circuits comprising different numbers of batteries and bulbs (in this Example, //Circuit cards Word// file) • digital camera • software allowing display of circuits on an interactive whiteboard (in this Example, //Crocodile Clips Elementary//, []) • 30 × 1.3 V bulbs, 30 × 1.5 V batteries, wire and crocodile clips • 30–40 sweets • a small obstacle for children to climb over, e.g. a low bench

ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this lesson, teachers need to know how to: • use an interactive whiteboard and software; • use a digital camera; • import digital images into a word processor document.

Preparation for this lesson
Print out ten sets of the circuit cards and a hard copy of a writing frame for all children. The writing frame should include a space to record a prediction, a space to describe the experiment, a table for recording results, an opportunity to state how well the results matched the children’s prediction and a space for children to write their conclusion. Load the writing frame and interactive whiteboard files on your own computer ready for display. Distribute the bulbs, batteries, wires and crocodile clips to the children. (Note: Children should not test the effect of three batteries on a single bulb since the bulb will blow.)


 * Lesson extract ||

Starter
Explain to children that they are going to explore how to change the brightness of bulbs in a circuit. Role-play the flow of electricity by asking children to form a circle representing a circuit. One child becomes the battery holding ‘sweets’ while an obstacle represents the bulb. The children walk round in a circle past the battery where they are provided with electricity, a sweet. The electricity allows them to light up the bulb (i.e. climb over the obstacle).

Main activity
Remind the children that they will be investigating how they can change the brightness of bulbs in a circuit. Project any one of the circuit card images onto the screen and use this to ask pupils to predict how we might change the brightness of a bulb. Note their suggestions on the board as appropriate. Q How can we change the brightness of the bulb? (add more batteries or bulbs) Q What can we do to the circuit to affect things? (add different numbers of bulbs and batteries) Give out the sets of the circuit cards to pupils and also project them onto the screen. Ask the children to predict what might happen in several different circuits showing different numbers of batteries and bulbs. Start the practical work with the children. Give out printouts of a writing frame and ask the children to test what happens when different numbers of batteries are added to two bulbs (1, 2, 3) and when different numbers of bulbs are added to two batteries (1, 2, 3). Ask them to record their findings on the writing frame. While this work is being undertaken the teacher or child could take digital photographs of different circuits for later evaluation and comparison.

Plenary
Bring the children back together and use the simulation software (in this Example, //Crocodile Clips Elementary//) to model the investigation they have done. Share the children’s findings through discussion of each circuit before the children write their reports. Q What happens to bulbs when you add more batteries to a circuit? What is the reason for this? Q What happens when you add more bulbs to a circuit with one battery? What is the reason for this? Q How well do our results match our predictions? (refer to the recorded predictions discussing these in the light of the actual results) Q Was this a fair test?


 * Notes ||

Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to: QCA Science Unit 4F: Circuits and conductors

Context of this lesson
This lesson forms part of the second Key Stage 2 unit on electricity and builds the concepts of circuits, conductors and insulators. This is the first time that children will have encountered the concept of varying the amount of electricity that flows around the circuit. Children should already have a secure understanding of the concept of a circuit as an unbroken path around which electricity flows. They will understand that batteries provide the voltage for circuits.

Subject links
This lesson can link to design and technology.

Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows. • Comparing and analysing different circuits using images and simulations makes ideas less abstract and supports visual learning. • Writing frames can be developed, saved and referred back to in order to reinforce specific points, e.g. fair testing and the relationship between bulbs, batteries and brightness. • Simulations allow experiments to be undertaken where the concepts are covered without using physical materials. This has advantages of cost, safety and convenience.

Year 4 || =Keeping warm=
 * SCIENCE


 * Information ||

Objectives
• To collect, store and retrieve temperatures • To explain temperature and temperature changes using scientific knowledge and understanding

Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should: • know that metals are good electrical conductors; • be able to measure some quantities, e.g. length, in standard measures.

Vocabulary
heat, temperature, thermometer, degrees Celsius, thermal sensor

Resources
• data projector or interactive whiteboard linked to a laptop • dataloggers and temperature sensors with appropriate software (in this Example, //LogIT Explorer//) • light sensors (optional)

ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this lesson, teachers need to know how to: • set up and use datalogging equipment.

Preparation for this lesson
Refer to the yearly teaching programmes in the //Framework for teaching mathematics from Reception to Year 6// to identify the aspects of data handling that can be drawn out in this lesson. This will help to make sure that the teaching and learning of mathematics and science are mutually reinforcing. This lesson requires the collection of data from sensors that have been left to record for 24 hours. It is best carried out during the colder months of the year when the contrast between daytime and night-time temperatures will be greatest. Set up two or three pairs of light and temperature sensors. One pair should be left outside if possible. The others should be left in the classroom, one near a door or window and one in the warmest place in the room, e.g. by a radiator. Prior to the lesson, record information for 24 hours using the dataloggers. Download the information from the sensors and save it in a form that can be displayed in a graph.


 * Lesson extract ||

Starter
Remind children about the sensors that have been set up and the places they were left. Discuss the learning objectives, explaining that they are going to collect, store, and retrieve and analyse temperature change. Ask children to predict the outcome of the experiment. Q Which sensor do you think will show the highest temperature? Why? Q Which do you think will show the lowest temperature? Why? Q Which sensor do you think will show the greatest difference between the hottest and coldest temperatures during the 24 hours? Why? Record the children’s predictions.

Main activity
Display the downloaded temperature data on the screen as line graphs. Ask children to identify which graph is from which sensor and to give reasons for their choices. Refer back to their predictions. Q Do the graphs match your predictions? Reveal which graph is which and discuss how well their predictions about highest and lowest temperatures, etc. matched the real data. Begin to interpret the graphs. Q Where are the temperature changes on the graph? (steep curves, shallow lines, dips) Q What do these show is happening? (steep lines mean rapid temperature change; shallow lines means gradual change) Ask the children to work in pairs to decide the reason for any changes that are shown in the graphs. These could, for example, be the heating switching on or off, doors being left open to let children in or out of the room, sunset or sunrise. Collate the children’s ideas about the temperature changes, annotating the on-screen graph. If using light sensors, display the graphs with the light changes and cross-check the children’s interpretations with the additional information that the light graphs provide about sunset and sunrise. As the final part of the whole-class teaching session, agree a definitive interpretation of the temperature changes during the day and night.

Plenary
Reinforce the children’s interpretation of graphs by asking them to explain different temperature–time graphs or to create sketches of similar graphs for familiar heating events, e.g. the water for a cup of tea, the oil in a chip pan, bath water. Reinforce previous learning objectives by reading and/or marking scales on thermometers including the notion of negative temperatures. Use questioning to assess their scientific knowledge and understanding of temperature change. Anticipate the next steps in the module through asking children to outline ways in which the classroom is kept warm and ways in which children keep warm outside.


 * Notes ||

Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to: QCA Science Unit 4C: Keeping warm QCA ICT Unit [|6C: Control and monitoring – what happens when ...?]

Context of this lesson
This is one of a series of lessons about heat, temperature and insulation. Children will have learned about temperature measurement but will not yet have carried out experiments on conserving heat energy. The focus of this lesson is about different temperatures and temperature changes rather than an average room temperature.

Subject links
This lesson can link to design and technology and to mathematics.

Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows. • ICT allows teachers to project enlarged visual images for whole-class demonstration and discussion. • Measurements made with digital measuring equipment are recorded automatically and with a greater degree of accuracy than measurements made manually. • Graphs and charts are produced more quickly and more accurately with ICT than those produced manually, allowing more time for analysis.

SCIENCE Year 4 || =Solids and liquids=

Information ||

Objectives
• To identify solids and liquids and know that there are liquids other than water • To correctly classify materials as liquid or solid (e.g. wood, iron, syrup, shampoo, cooking oil), explaining the reasons for their choices • To describe similarities between solids (e.g. they don’t change shape when you move them) and between liquids (e.g. they move when you tilt the bottle), and differences between solids and liquids (e.g. you can pour the liquids but not the solids)

Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should: • know vocabulary used to describe materials; • be familiar with melting and freezing; • know how to separate solids by sieving.

Vocabulary
property (of materials), solid, liquid

Resources
• data projector or interactive whiteboard linked to a laptop • digital microscope (in this Example, // QX3(TM) Plus Computer Microscope //) • software which allows for dragging and dropping of text and displaying the results on a whiteboard (in this Example//, SMART Notebook//) • resource file containing liquids and solids to be classified • variety of solids, e.g. metal, wood, stone, wax, plastic, expanded polystyrene, sponge, rice, sand • variety of liquids, e.g. water, cooking oil (not groundnut), golden syrup, detergent, melted chocolate • an empty container of a different shape to the one that holds the water • gravel in two different grades (optional) • pupil dry wipe boards

ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this lesson, teachers need to know how to: • use an interactive whiteboard and software; • use a digital microscope.

Preparation for this lesson
Before the lesson, set up the relevant software on the shared area of the network or on the computers that the children are to use. Prepare the software on your own computer ready for display. Set up the digital microscope. Ensure that you have the required materials and containers identified in the Resources section.

Lesson extract ||

Overview
This lesson uses questioning and observation to draw out and develop children’s ideas about the properties of solids and liquids. An interactive whiteboard and a digital microscope are used to support the questioning and to help pupils structure their developing ideas.

Starter
Open the resource file containing liquids and solids to be classified. Remind children of the work they did in Year 3 on properties of materials. Select a material from those on the board and ask children to write down a property of that material using either a word from the list on the board or an alternative. Move the words together to match materials and properties, adding any suitable additional vocabulary children suggest.

Main activity
Show the children the examples of the materials you have selected and labelled. Distribute the materials on trays around the tables. Display the names of the substances on the screen. Tell the children to work in groups to study the materials and to use their observation to come up with a way of sorting the substances into two categories. Do not suggest solid and liquid at this stage. Children write their classifications on their whiteboards. Bring the class together and ask them to hold up their whiteboards so that everybody can see the different categories they have decided to use. This also allows you to note those children who have interesting ideas that could be discussed, those who have sorted materials into solids and liquids and those who are likely to need support. Use the interactive whiteboard to move the names of the substances into the different groups suggested by the children. Briefly explore categories other than solid and liquid first. Finish with groups that have come up with the idea of sorting into solids and liquids. Put the titles ‘solid’ and ‘liquid’ on the board and sort the materials, questioning children as you do so. Leave out the more difficult materials such as sponge, sand and rice at this stage. Q Why do you think iron is a solid? Q What makes water a liquid? How is it different from iron? Q Peter said iron was a solid because it was hard. Are all solids hard? Is wax a solid? Is it hard? Is it as hard as iron? Can we come up with a word other than ‘hard’ to describe solids? Q Can you spill a solid? Why not? Q What do you notice about the shape of the liquids you have looked at? What shape does this water have? (Pour the water into a different shaped container.) What shape is the water now? Q Why do you think golden syrup is a liquid? Q What is the same about detergent and water? What is different? Q Is melted chocolate a liquid? If I leave it here (and nobody eats it), will it stay a liquid? What will be the difference between the melted chocolate and the solid chocolate? Would there be the same differences between water and ice? Ask children to work in groups to decide what the solids and liquids have in common. Allow time for discussion, prompting and questioning as appropriate. Collate children’s ideas on the next page of the whiteboard file. Question them and comment as appropriate. Go to the next page in the whiteboard file and, as a whole class, decide which statements of properties of solids and/or liquids go in which boxes. Refer back to the previous screen to show statements in common with the children’s. Now bring in rice, sand and sponge and ask the children to spend a couple of minutes deciding whether they are solids or are liquids, and why. When children have decided, ask for hands up for both options; take ideas from those who think they are liquids and those who think they are solids, along with their reasons. Show the children the rice, sand and sponge under the digital microscope, displaying the images on the screen. Highlight a single grain of rice or sand and ask the children if the single grain is a solid or a liquid. Establish that the individual grains are solid and that there are solid parts to the sponge. Establish that there is air between the grains or the solid parts of the sponge. Now ask the children to work in groups and to reconsider whether these substances are solid or liquid and why they think this. Again, collect answers from different groups. Encourage the children to try to explain why, even though the substances are solid, they can be poured like a liquid or squashed into a different shape. Show two different grades of gravel (e.g. building gravel, gravel from a fish tank) to emphasise the motion of small particles making up the sand or rice. Children should now do some written work to reinforce the learning.

Plenary
Show the last page in the interactive whiteboard file. Ask the pupils to look at the words around the concentric circles that make up the ‘target’. Explain that the words that are most important for explaining the properties of solids/liquids should go in the middle, and then other words can be arranged in order of importance, with those that are not important at all left outside the circles. Ask the children to write a word that would go in the middle of the target onto their mini-whiteboards. Discuss their ideas, asking them for reasons and moving the words on the board to reflect their suggestions. Repeat the process for words that are quite important, for liquids etc. Use the questioning to assess children’s success in meeting the desired learning objectives.

Notes ||

Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to: Science Unit 4D: Solids, liquids and how they can be separated Section 2: Sorting liquids from solids

Context of this lesson
This is the first lesson in Year 4 Unit 4D. Children will have studied some characteristic properties of materials in Year 3. They may have a general feel for the notion of a solid or a liquid from other experiences. This is the first time they will have studied the general properties of solids and liquids in school.

Subject links
This lesson can link to design and technology, mathematics and geography.

Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows. • ICT allows teachers to project enlarged visual images for whole-class demonstration and discussion. • The use of the digital microscope helps to make concrete the rather difficult notion that small grains or porous structures really are solids. • ICT assists questioning by enabling quick sorting of text in different ways that can be saved for future reference, hence supporting the process of hypothesis and reasoning.