Year 6 Science – Electricity

National Curriculum objectives Learning vision Lesson content & Resources

Year 4
- Identify common appliances that run on electricity
Working Scientifically UKS2
- Identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support
or refute ideas or arguments
Year 4
- construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and
naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches
and buzzers
- identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series
circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete
loop with a battery
- recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and
associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple
series circuit
Year 6
- use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in
a diagram
Some will even: Use scientific vocabulary
confidently in your writing
Some of us: Explain how major
discoveries led to the widespread use of
electricity
Most of us: Explain how our
understanding of electricity has changed
over time
All of us: Explain what electricity is and
how we use it in our lives
Some will even: begin to understand how
changing components affects the circuit
Some of us: create working circuits that
power an output component
Most of us: draw circuit diagrams using
electronic symbols accurately
All of us: identify circuit symbols and label
circuit diagrams correctly
Some will even: Explain why altering
components affects the output
Some of us: Recognise that altering the
power source and output components
affects the performance of electrical
circuits
Most of us: Explain why circuits do not
work and suggest corrections
All of us: Draw accurate circuit diagrams
and recognise when circuits will/won’t
work
What do we use electricity for? Discuss.
Watch the video (link in PPT) about how electricity
gets to our homes, then create their own storyboard
to briefly explain this using the pictures.
Read the text on the history of electricity (topic
booklet), then get the children to summarise the
information in a flow diagram.
True or false? questions to identify and address
misconceptions.
Writing task: imagine you’re in 1920’s Britain and write
an article about why people should embrace
electricity (further details in the PPT).
Recap circuit symbols and allow the children time to
test each other (test pages in the topic booklet).
Work through the slides showing circuits, discussing
the questions and working out how you could fix
those that wouldn’t work.
Label the circuit diagrams (resource in topic book file)
and then draw their own to criteria.
Practical: make the circuits they labelled and drew
themselves. Start experimenting with components.
Discussion points, then true or false? questions to
identify and address misconceptions.
Go through the quiz questions as a recap, addressing
misconceptions as they arise.
Watch the BBC live lesson video, pausing to discuss as
the experiments are carried out.
SATs questions – give out the questions for the
children to work through. This is NOT a test, but an
opportunity to deepen their own understanding. Go
over answers with different groups as they work. It
doesn’t matter if the children don’t finish all their
questions. There are 3 levels of questions.
Guide to electricity – create their own guide, showing
their understanding.
Year 4
recognise some common conductors and insulators, and
associate metals with being good conductors
Working Scientifically UKS2
- planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer
questions, including recognising and controlling variables
where necessary
- reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including
conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and a
degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as
displays and other presentations
Year 6:
- associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer
with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit
- compare and give reasons for variations in how components
function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of
buzzers and the on/off position of switches
Working Scientifically UKS2
- planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer
questions, including recognising and controlling variables
where necessary
- taking measurements, using a range of scientific equipment,
with increasing accuracy and precision, taking repeat readings
when appropriate
- recording data and results of increasing complexity using
scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, scatter
graphs, bar and line graphs
- using test results to make predictions to set up further
comparative and fair tests
- reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including
conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and a
degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as
displays and other presentations
Some will even: Apply understanding of
conductors and insulators to answer
hypothetical questions
Some of us: Use scientific vocabulary to
explain how electricity flows through
materials
Most of us: Explain why some materials
conduct electrical currents and others
don’t
All of us: Sort materials into conductors
and insulators
Some will even: Use scientific language
to explain your ideas
Some of us: Explain how the
number/voltage of cells used in a circuit
affect output components
Most of us: Compare variations in how
components function and give reasons
for this
All of us: Devise and investigate
questions about changing components in
a circuit
Complete the sentence slides to check understanding
and address any misconceptions.
Watch the video on how electricity flows, then get the
children to work in small groups to explain how
electricity flows. There is a page on this in the topic
booklet. Get a group to briefly explain to the class.
Practical: plan their investigation into conductors.
There is help on how to structure and write the plan in
the topic booklet, and a structure strip to guide their
writing in the teacher resources. They will need a
range of objects to test. Carry out the investigation
and finish writing up. There are pages with scientific
vocabulary and definitions in the topic booklet.
Extension: thinking points questions to discuss.
Complete the sentence slides to check understanding
and address any misconceptions.
Practical: plan their investigation into varying the
components and cells in a circuit There is help on how
to structure and write the plan in the topic booklet,
and a structure strip to guide their writing in the
teacher resources. Then, carry out the investigation
and finish writing up. There are pages with scientific
vocabulary and definitions in the topic booklet.
Year 4
- construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and
naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches
and buzzers
Year 6
- use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in
a diagram
Working Scientifically UKS2
- reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including
conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and a
degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as
displays and other presentations
Some will even: Use scientific language
confidently
Some of us: Test and evaluate your
design
Most of us: Build and test your circuit to
ensure it functions correctly
All of us: Design, draw and label a circuit
for a steady hand game
Complete the sentence and true or false? questions to
identify and address misconceptions.
The children will design their own steady-hand game.
They will need to draw and label the diagram, make
and test the circuit in this lesson.
The rest of this project is being completed through
D&T, so this lesson should focus on the practicalities
of making the game function correctly.