A simple circuit with a battery, wires, a bulb and a gap holds this 4-page 4th grade science investigation. Students label the four parts, then predict and record whether the bulb lights for eight objects: a paper clip, eraser, coin, craft stick, aluminum foil, plastic spoon, key and crayon. A completed results table and four questions follow, and page 4 is the answer key. It supports NGSS 4-PS3-2.
4-PS3-2
“Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.”
The prediction table and the results table record whether current flows through each object, and the four questions ask what that evidence shows.
A circuit diagram has four numbered parts. Students write battery, wire, bulb or gap with clips from a word bank of four.
A three-column table lists the eight objects. Students write lights or does not light as a prediction, then record the result of each test.
A filled table shows which objects lit the bulb. Four questions ask which are conductors, what they are made of, why the bulb stayed dark with the eraser and what a gap in the wire would do.
The four part labels, the full results table and written answers to the four questions.
Hands-on version
Build the circuit with a battery, a bulb and two clips and let groups test the real objects. They fill the prediction column first and the result column as they go.
No equipment
Use page 3 alone as a data task. The filled table lets students pick out the conductors even when you cannot set up circuits.
Predictions on the board
Collect predictions before anyone tests. The coin and the crayon are good ones to argue about.
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