Electricity, Electricity Everywhere

Summary

In this lesson, students will identify ways they use electricity.

Materials

'The Stupids Die,' by Harry Allard, Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN0-395-30347-8;'What Makes Light Go On?' by Scott Corbett, Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 'A Letter to Amy', by Ezra Jack Keats, Publisher: Harper and Row

Intended Learning Outcomes

Make observations. Recognize the personal relevance of science in daily life. Respect the contributions of science to the quality of life. Recognize the interdependence of science, society, and technology. Distinguish between science and technology.

Instructional Procedures

Tell a story about a person who wakes up and moves through his daily routine, finding there is no electricity. For example, John wakes up and goes to the bathroom and turns on the light, but nothing happens. When he opens the refridgerator, the food is warm, etc. etc. Ask the students what is missing in his day. You can also use the 3 books listed in materials as an introduction. Take a walk together around the school, inside and out. The students should be looking for ways electricity is used. Students record in their journals what they saw. Start a class chart listing all of the ways the students have seen electricity being used. Give the students the following homework assignment:

1. Go home and make a list of ways electricity is used in your home.
2. Interview your grandparents and/or an elderly neighbor and ask them how electricity was used when they were growing up. Ask them how the use of electricity has changed. What is electricity used for now that it was not used for then? Is there anything that electricity was used for then that it is not used for now? How has the use of electricity changed society? Add the student's lists of ways electricity is used in their home to the class list.

Discuss the experiences they had interviewing elderly people about electricity. Talk about how electricity has changed society. Talk to them about the difference between science (the pursuit of knowledge about the natural world) and technology (the use of that knowledge). What is the science of electricity? (the way electricity works; the flow of electrons, etc..) What are the technologies associated with electricity? (how it is used; lights, t.v.'s, etc...) Tell student to make the following entry in their journals:
1. List ten ways you use electricity. 2. List five ways that the use of electricity has changed in the past 50 years. 3. What is the difference between the science of electricity and the technology of electricity?

Extensions

Challenge students to write a story about what would happen in their lives if they were to be without electricity for a week. Or write a story about what would happen to society if electricity were eliminated permanently.

Assessment Plan

Have students write a paragraph about why electricity is so important to them, and how their lives would be different without it.

Examine their journals for accuracy and understanding.