Circuits
Science · Year 4–Year 6
Add cells and lamps, flick the switch, and see what the lamp does.
About the circuits
A series circuit that draws itself. Say how many cells and how many lamps and the loop appears, with the switch on the right and the buzzer, if you want one, on the left. Tap the switch on the board to flick it.
Add a cell and the lamp gets brighter. Add a lamp and they both go dim. That comparison is the Year 6 objective, and it needs the cells shared between the lamps rather than any volts.
When nothing happens the board says why: no cell, the switch is open, or nothing in the loop for the current to work. "Nothing happens" on its own is where a class gets stuck, and the reason is the more useful half of the answer.
The symbols are the recognised ones, because using them is itself on the Year 6 curriculum. A drawing of a torch battery would be friendlier and would teach the wrong thing. Names is on by default for Year 4, where identifying and naming the parts is the objective, and can be turned off once they know them.
How to use it on your whiteboard
- 1Cells and Lamps set how many of each are in the loop.
- 2Tap the switch on the board, or the Switch button, to open and close it.
- 3Buzzer puts one in the circuit alongside the lamps.
- 4Names hides the labels once the class can name the parts.
- 5Tap Fullscreen so the circuit fills the board.
Questions
- Why can I not drag the components around?
- Because the dragging would become the lesson. The question on the board is what happens to the lamp when you add a cell, and building the loop by hand is what the kit on the tables is for. Choosing the parts gets to the question in one tap.
- Why does the lamp not blow with three cells?
- A real lamp might, and it is worth saying out loud. Drawing a blown lamp would teach that three cells is a mistake, when the thing being taught is that more cells is brighter. The tool shows brighter and leaves the rest to you.
- Can I make a parallel circuit?
- No, this is a series circuit only. Parallel circuits are not on the primary curriculum and drawing one would need the components to be placed by hand, which is the design this tool deliberately avoids.
- Does the buzzer make a sound?
- It shows that it is sounding rather than sounding. A classroom board with sound is not something to rely on, and a buzzer that only worked when the volume happened to be up would be worse than one that clearly shows what it is doing.