Virginia Department of Education
Electricity and Circuits
Electrify your classroom as you lead pupils through a series of steps to demonstrate basic principles of electricity and magnetism. They design a simple circuit and test this for static electricity and current electricity. Next, they...
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Electricity and Magnetism: From Fun to Function
Fourth graders experiment with electricity and magnetism and build an electromagnetic motor. In this electromagnetism lesson, 4th graders use household objects to show electrostatics and magnets and compasses to show magnetism. They...
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What is Lightning?
Students experiment with electricity to understand lightning. In this lightning lesson, students show how static electricity causes lightning. Students discuss questions about their experiment and gather important facts. Students...
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Static Electricity and Lightning
Students study concepts related to static electricity, based on a single example: lightning. They explain how static electricity, lightning, and sparks are all related phenomena. They draw a diagram illustrating the negative and positive...
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Lightning!
Students use aluminum, a thumbtack, an eraser, and more to create static electricity. In this static electricity lesson plan, students use this experiment to simulate lightning.
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Electricity
Learners identify the different professions that are related to electricity. In this professions instructional activity students write a story about performing one of these jobs and share it with the class.
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Understanding: Electricity
High schoolers view a segment of "Electricity's Power," they focus on the professions- lightning researcher, scientist specializing in electricity in space, and a lineman. They choose one profession, students explore and investigate...
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Lightning in a Jar
Students create lightning with two common objects and observe the colorful "discharge" of electrons on a smaller scale. By exploring the phenomena of static electricity, students relate their knowledge to the real-life weather phenomena...
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More About Static Electricity
Students examine the concept that static electricity is a phenomenon that involves positive and negative charges. They explore the Static Electricity section of the Science, Technology and Engineering website to learn more about the...
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Static Electricity - Grocery Store Items
Students investigate static electricity using inexpensive "grocery store" items. They view demonstrations with video segments. They graph the data they collect.
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Electricity Shortage
Students use the Internet to discover what electricity is and how it is made. They examine a site that discusses electricity and magnetism. They discover the ways electricity can be generated.
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Electricity - How it Works and How We Measure and Pay For It
Students investigate energy consumption by researching wattage. In this electricity lesson, students discuss how electricity works and gets transferred to our electronic devices through generators and circuits. Students examine their...
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Static electricity: Ah, There's the rub!
Students experiment to investigate static electricity. In this static electricity lesson, students prepare a balloon head and draw a face on it. Students rub the nose and the balloon moves toward the student rubbing.
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Plasma Globes and Electricity
Students examine the basic ideas of conductors and insulators. In this electricity lesson, students predict which items will work as insulators or conductors when contact is made with a lightning globe. The students evaluate what they...
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Lightning
Students uncover the science behind lightning and thunder.Theyexamine electrical attraction between like and unlike charges, and the force that creates lightning, is first explained using static electricity.
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Lightning
Students study lightening and the history behind how it was used for electricity. For this electricity lesson students complete several experiments on the invention of the lightning rod.
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Static Electricity 4: Static Electricity and Lightning
Students explain concepts related to static electricity, based on a single example: lightning.
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Making Lightening: In Your Mouth
Young scholars look at a lightening demonstration. In this lightening lesson, students bite into a wintergreen candy while looking in the mirror in a dark room. They see sparks in their mouths if they perform the task correctly.
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How is Lightning Formed
Young scholars research lightning paying particular attention to how it is formed, where it is most likely to occur, and how most people struck by lightning survive.
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Lightning
Young scholars investigate lightning. In this lightning lesson, students demonstrate how static electricity is in the air by observing how a balloon reacts to a charge.
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Static Electricity 3: More About Static Electricity
Students reinforce the concept that static electricity is a phenomenon that involves positive and negative charges.
Purdue University
Design of a Door Alarm
How does electricity work? Budding scientists explore the concepts of electrical currents and open and closed circuits with class discussion and a hands-on activity using a battery to turn on a light bulb. Learners also make predictions...
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Electricity Safety
Third graders explore electricity safety. In this science lesson, 3rd graders read a story about an electrical outage. Students discuss if various situations shown are safe or unsafe.
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Benjamin Franklin - Master of Electricity The Kite Experiment and the Invention of the Lightning Rod
Students study Benjamin Franklin including who he was, what he invented and his experiment. In this inventive instructional activity students follow the steps of Ben Franklin and build a Leyden jar.