Wow! Mr. Bowers and his 4th grade students lit up the gym this morning by having a Circuits Open House where his Science students showcased their circuitry knowledge in the most amazing creative ways! He invited parents and all EL classes to walk through as well. As I was walking through, I LOVED that many students utilized our Makerspace resources in their construction plans too!
I couldn't let this unit go unnoticed so I asked Mr. Bowers if he would so kindly respond to some of my probing questions. I decided to share with you my exact questions, and Mr. Bowers candid responses :)
Can you narrate the big idea of the unit/project? What do you want students walking away knowing and doing? Tie this to your Iowa Core Standards and identify those for me - please :) AND... what was the progression of learning tasks that led up to the performance task?
ICC/NGSS: 4–PS3–2
Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
Big Idea: Provide evidence that energy can be transferred from a power source to a load through the use of basic circuitry.
The original idea for this project came from training I received from an Iowa grant I won from KidWind. This training focused on the solar aspect, which we save for the end of the year. The original content is spanned from 4-12th grade, so I had to scale it down to my fourth grade students.
We started by having an exploratory activity in which students were introduced to the basic circuitry components. During this activity we also explored conductors and insulators with the use of digital multimeters. Student loved using these science tools and had fun testing various objects to see if they were an insulator or conductor.
Next students took part in an inquiry activity on making a simple series circuit. During this activity, they were able to light a single LED with a 2.4v rechargeable battery pack. However, once I asked them to light two of them they came to the realization it was not possible. This was purposeful because there was simply not enough power to light two 1.9v LEDs. This led us to our next step of creating parallel circuits. They quickly found they could light many LEDs with just that battery pack when using a parallel circuit. They also learned that there was more than one path for electrons to flow in a parallel circuit. We tied this to their knowledge of christmas lights. The higher priced lights use parallel circuits so if one light goes out, the rest can still function.
The next step was one of the more difficult ones. They learned how to create a homemade momentary switch with cardstock and aluminum tape. We could use pre-made switches, but what’s the fun in that? Once we finished this they were ready to create their first circuit which included a switch. To practice I had them draw a design on their cardboard. We then decided to make it light up using what we had learned. This was a challenging exercise as it required them to put together everything we had learned. They were able to look back to several different template circuits they made as a guide if they got stuck.
Once they were finished they were able to add those to their portfolios. Next came their culminating project! This was the one they were excited about, as they heard about it last year. In thinking more about UDL, I decided to give students even more choices on their structure. I left it completely open with a few simple requirements. They had to design a structure and wire it using a parallel circuit to power at least three loads. This allowed for a huge amount of creativity as a result! Link to Performance Task.
How long was the unit?
The Unit was around 3 weeks.
Please share a personal reflection. Some things to consider within your reflection. Did the project go as planned? Would you change anything? What was the biggest take-away from your perspective of the PBL activity?
The project went very well, although next time I will focus more on the movement of electrons. The students could demonstrate this, but struggled with the terminology. The big idea, however, was not the terminology, but rather the concept of the transfer of energy through a circuit. In allowing the students to have more choices, I got more creativity and more complex circuits. Last year we exclusively used incandescent Christmas lights, which had its pros and cons. This year we started with LEDs and then left them a choice. LEDs were much harder for students to get solid connections and easier to burn out. However, I had many students use them with great success.
Many challenges arrived for the students, which caused deeper thinking. They had a choice between multiple different LEDs or Incandescent. I had different colors and even RBG flashing LEDs for their loads. I provided several types of batteries, and even had a student bring in a huge 6v battery. LEDs are polarity sensitive so students had to understand that the short leg was negative and the longer side was positive. They discovered they needed to wire the LEDs in parallel as well as get the correct voltage to light them. Some of the LEDs required closer to 3v while some required as little as 1.4v. This resulted in some students burning them out with higher voltage batteries. I wanted them to learn this first hand so they were not initially given this information, unless there was a safety concern. An example of this would be preventing them from using a 9v, as we did not want the bulbs to shatter. When using higher voltage batteries precautions should be taken, but overall students did an awesome job. Allowing them to take control of their learning and experience first hand the effects of electrical currents was extremely beneficial.
What did you re-design in the lesson from last year to this year?
I allowed for much more student agency.
What is the DOK? (Our district is working on Cognitive Complexity during professional development - so I just had to throw this question in.)
You’re killing me. The DOK of the standard is (I believe) a Level 3 because it says you are providing evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place.
Are you using any technology? What? How? What is gained by using tech?
They used digital multimeters to test objects for insulators and conductors. They used their computers for ideas on structures to build. We used chromebooks (still need to do this…) to get on Seesaw to write about their final thinking about the project. I used Twitter as a way to share out to the community/wherever else what they were doing.
You are a rockstar Brian! I just want to share with everyone what I see!
Ha, thanks.