why does electricity flow? · 59 what you need a copy of the worksheet ‘vocabulary’ for every...

59

What you need� A copy of the worksheet

‘Vocabulary’ for every child.

� A copy each of the two worksheets ‘How current electricity is made in a traditional power station’ and ‘How electricity is made in a wind farm’ for every child, plus A3 copies for yourself.

Why Does Electricity Flow?

Key language

electron fl ow circuit battery generator turbine

nuclear fi ssion shaft copper coil power line

First ideasSee Introduction for suggestions on how to introduce the Factbook for the fi rst time.

Mixed ability teachingSee Introduction for suggestions on how to use the activities identifi ed by the and icons.

Before reading

Worksheet: VocabularyTell the children that they are going to read about electricity and give out the worksheet, which introduces some of the key vocabulary. The children should be able to guess all the correct answers. Ask the children to check their answers with a partner before you go over them with the whole class. Get the children to circle the correct pictures and to read out the correct defi nitions aloud.

ReadingRead pages 4 and 5 of the Factbook, pausing to discuss and explain the concepts, for example, by getting the children to point to the correct defi nitions and pictures on their worksheets as you come to those words. Alternatively, play the CD (track 33) instead of reading, pausing where necessary.

The children could then reread the sections to themselves or in small groups.

Ask some of the more confi dent children to read a short section aloud to the class.

After reading

Worksheets: How current electricity is made in a traditional power station and How electricity is made in a wind farmGive out Worksheet 1: How current electricity is made in a traditional power station. The children look at the sentences at the bottom of the page and copy them onto the appropriate place on the diagram. Display your A3 copy of the diagram to go through the answers with the children.

Repeat with Worksheet 2: How electricity is made in a wind farm.

Go through the answers with the children fi rst, using your A3 copies of the worksheets, before asking them to copy the sentences.

White out some of the words before photocopying the worksheets for the children. Write the words on the board and ask the children to write the labels on the diagrams and fi ll in the gaps.

Answers:

1b, 2a, 3b, 4c, 5a

Answers:

1d, 2b, 3a, 4e, 5c

Answers:

1d, 2c, 3b, 4a, 5e

Topic 1: What is current electricity and how is it made?

60

Additional activitiesSimplified questions and answers (page 69): See Introduction for suggestions on how to use these.

61© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE

Name

1. An electron is:

a. a monster from the planet Electrica.

b. a little bit of an atom that carries a negative electrical charge.

c. a kind of police offi cer.

2. An electrical circuit is:

a. a path that that can carry electricity. It can have branches,

but it must be closed somewhere.

b. the money we pay for our electricity.

c. a kind of circus.

3. A turbine is:

a. a large animal that lives in the sea.

b. a motor that turns a shaft.

c. a kind of plant.

4. An electricity generator is:

a. a kind of fi sh.

b. a kind of soldier.

c. a machine that makes electricity.

5. A coil is:

a. something such as wire that goes round and round like this.

b. a bottle of oil.

c. a very nice phone.

Worksheet: Vocabulary

Guess what the words mean. Circle a letter.


Name

Write the sentences.

Worksheet 1: How current electricity

is made in a traditional power station

1.

a. The turbine turns a shaft.

b. The steam then turns the turbine.

c. Power lines carry the electricity to our homes.

d. Oil, gas, coal or nuclear power are used to make steam.

e. The shaft turns a magnet round a copper coil. This makes electricity.

2.

3.

4.

5.


Name

Write the sentences.

Worksheet 2: How electricity is

made in a wind farm

a. The shaft turns a magnet round a copper coil. This makes electricity.

b. The movement of the blades is used to turn a shaft.

c. The wind turns the blades.

d. The wind blows.

e. Power lines carry the electricity to our homes.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

64

What you need� Some infl ated balloons.

� Three pieces of paper about 10 cm by 15 cm for each child.

� A copy each of the worksheets ‘Static electricity and current electricity’ and ‘More facts about static and current electricity’ for every child.

Note: This follows on from Topic 1.

Key language

occur naturally fl ash spark static electricity

build up of electrical charge electrons opposite charge

gigantic electric spark release energy

gain/lose something stick up



Before readingReview the meaning of electron and circuit from Topic 1.

Here are examples of how you might introduce some of the key language, writing new vocabulary on the board throughout:

Pass the balloons round the class and encourage the children to run them over their hair as fast as they can. Ask Why is our hair sticking up? to elicit or introduce static electricity.

Reading

Worksheet: Static electricity and current electricityGive out the pieces of paper and ask the children to write True on one, False on the next and Don’t know on the third. Put the children into pairs and give out the worksheet. Ask them to go through the sentences and decide whether they think they are true or false. Encourage the children to discuss the sentences.

When everyone is ready, read out the sentences one by one and ask the children to hold up their True, False or Don’t know signs.

Read pages 6 and 7 of the Factbook, pausing to discuss and explain the concepts, for example, contrasting the opposite charges that cause lightning with the same type of charge that causes our hairs to repel each other when we brush electrons into our hair with the balloon. Alternatively, play the CD (track 34) instead of reading, pausing where necessary.

Read through the true or false sentences and get the children to vote again. Give them the correct answers and get the children to make any corrections on their worksheet.



Answers:

1. T

2. T

3. F. (It is about 9.65 km long.)

4. T

5. F. (You brush electrons onto it.)

Topic 2: Static electricity and current electricity

65

After reading

Worksheet: More facts about static and current electricityGive out the worksheet. The children write S or C by each sentence. If you like, ask the children to write S on the back of one of their pieces of paper and C on the back of the other. To go over the answers, read out each sentence in turn and ask the children to hold up their C or their S. Give the correct answer and get the children to make any corrections on their worksheet.


Further reading: You could now read Lightning strike on page 14 of the Factbook.

Answers:

1. S

2. C

3. C

4. S

5. S

6. C

7. S

8. S


Name

Are the sentences true or false? Write T or F.

1. Lightning is caused by static electricity.

2. A stroke of lightning is hotter than the surface of the Sun.

3. The average stroke of lighting is about a kilometre long.

4. In current electricity, the electrons fl ow around a circuit.

5. When you run a balloon over your hair, you brush little wires onto it.

Worksheet: Static electricity

and current electricity


Name

Here are some facts about static and current electricity, but they are all mixed up. Write S for static or C for current.

1. It is caused by a build up of electrons.

2. It is the kind of electricity in a battery.

3. It needs a closed circuit to fl ow.

4. It stays in one place until it jumps to an object.

5. It causes lightning.

6. It powers computers, fridges, lights and TVs.

7. It doesn’t need a circuit.

8. It’s the kind that gives you a ‘shock’ when you walk across a rug and

then touch a door handle.

Worksheet: More facts about

static and current electricity

68

What you need� A watch (battery

powered).

� A mobile phone.

� A laptop (on battery power).

� A lemon.

� A galvanised nail.

� A copper coin.

Topic 3: Batteries

Note: This follows on from Topic 2.

Key language

store something battery immediately tiny

huge chemical reaction go fl at



Before readingHere are examples of how you might introduce some of the key language, writing new vocabulary on the board throughout:

Show the children your watch, mobile phone and laptop and ask What makes these things work? What do they all have inside them? to elicit or introduce batteries. Brainstorm and write on the board all the things you and the children have at home and at school that are powered by batteries, using a bilingual dictionary or little sketches for unknown vocabulary. Decide with the children which of the things have tiny batteries.

Also mime trying to make a call on a mobile phone but failing because the battery has gone fl at.

ReadingRead pages 8 and 9 of the Factbook, pausing to discuss and explain the concepts, for example, by guessing how big the battery that runs an electric car is. Alternatively, play the CD (track 35) instead of reading, pausing where necessary.



After reading Demonstrate how to make a battery from a lemon. See page 9 of the Factbook and also ‘Useful link’.


Further reading: Read First electric car on page 12 and Electric force: Alessandro Volta on page 16 of the Factbook.

Useful linkhttp://www.nuffy.net/articles/lemon-battery.html

69

Simplified questions and answers

Q: What is electricity?A: Electricity is a type of energy produced

by the movement of electrons.

Q: Why does electricity fl ow? A: Electricity fl ows when there is a source of

electrical energy (such as a battery or a generator) connected into a circuit.

Q: How is electricity made?

A: There are many different ways to make electricity. Each method uses a turbine which turns a shaft and moves a large magnet around a copper coil. This movement creates electricity in the wire.

Q: Does electricity occur naturally? A: Lightning is a natural form of electricity.

This fl ash of heat and light is created by static electricity.

Q: What’s the difference between static electricity and current electricity?

A: Static electricity is when electric charges build up but are not fl owing. Current electricity has a steady fl ow of electrons.

Q: What do AC and DC mean?

A: The current that is made by a generator and is carried inside power lines is Alternating Current (AC) electricity. When the power comes from a battery, the current only moves in one direction and is called Direct Current (DC).

Q: Can you store electricity?A: Electricity can be stored in batteries,

but not in power plants.

Q: Why do batteries go fl at?A: Batteries go fl at when the chemicals

inside them can no longer make electrons fl ow.

Q: Why do circuit-breakers ‘trip’?A: Circuit-breakers ‘trip’ because they get

too hot when too much power is going through them.

Q: Why does my mp3 player need an AC adapter?

A: An AC adapter changes the powerful AC electricity from the wall socket to the less powerful DC electricity that an mp3 player needs. The adapter also recharges the mp3 player’s internal battery.

© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE

70

It’s quiz time! ideas and answers

You will fi nd a quiz on pages 20–23 of the Factbook. Here are some ways you could use the quiz:

� Take each activity in turn, with the children working in pairs or threes, checking the answers as a class before going on to the next activity either immediately or in a future lesson.

� The children work in small mixed ability teams to complete as many of the answers in the entire quiz as they can before checking the answers as a class and seeing which team has won – keeping this as light-hearted as possible, of course!

� The children work in pairs or threes to complete as many of the answers in the entire quiz as they can before checking the answers as a class.

� The children work individually on the entire quiz and then compare their answers in pairs or threes before checking them as a class.

� Exploit the quiz as extension activities for your fast fi nishers.

Answer key

Activity 1

2. FYou have more chance of being struck by lightning than winning the lottery.

3. FThe average stroke of lightning is about 9.65 kilometres long.

4. FElectricity was fi rst used in homes in the late 1800s.

5. T

6. T

Activity 2

2. Alessandro Volta

3. Michael Faraday

4. Thomas Edison

Activity 3

2. Nikola Tesla

3. Alessandro Volta

4. Nikola Tesla

Activity 4

1 g

2 e l e c t r i c i t y

l n

e e 3 c

4 c i r c u i t

t a r

r 5 t u r b i n e

o o e

n r n

s 6 s t a t i c

The mystery word is ‘energy’.

why does electricity flow? · 59 what you need a copy of the worksheet ‘vocabulary’ for every...

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