STANDARDS: ELECTRICITY & CIRCUITS

Electricity & Circuits covers several 4th and 5th grade national science standards regarding energy and properties of matter.

4-PS3-2: Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
4-PS3-4: Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another. [Clarification Statement: Examples of devices could include electric circuits that convert electrical energy into motion energy of a vehicle, light, or sound; and, a passive solar heater that converts light into heat.]

5-PS1-1: Develop a model to describe that matter is made of particles too small to be seen.
5-PS1-3: Make observations and measurements to identify materials based on their properties. [Clarification Statement: Examples of materials to be identified could include baking soda and other powders, metals, minerals, and liquids. Examples of properties could include color, hardness, reflectivity, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, response to magnetic forces, and solubility; density is not intended as an identifiable property.]

By the end of grade 5: Energy can be moved from place to place by moving objects or through sound, light, or electric currents.

By the end of grade 5: Energy is present whenever there are moving objects, sound, light, or heat. Energy can also be transferred from place to place by electric currents, which can then be used locally to produce motion, sound, heat, or light. The currents may have been produced to begin with by transforming the energy of motion into electrical energy (e.g., moving water driving a spinning turbine which generates electric currents).