Why Does Electricity Flow?
Topic 1: What is current electricity and how is it made?
What you need
Key language
electron
flow
nuclear fission
circuit
shaft
battery
copper coil
generator
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.
turbine
power line
First ideas
See Introduction for suggestions on how to introduce the Factbook for
the first time.
Mixed ability teaching
See Introduction for suggestions on how to use the activities identified by
the
and
icons.
Before reading
Worksheet: Vocabulary
Tell 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 definitions aloud.
Answers:
1b, 2a, 3b, 4c, 5a
Reading
Read 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 definitions
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 confident 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 farm
Give 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 first, 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 fill in the gaps.
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Answers:
1d, 2b, 3a, 4e, 5c
Answers:
1d, 2c, 3b, 4a, 5e
Additional activities
Simplified questions and answers (page 69): See Introduction for suggestions
on how to use these.
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Name
Worksheet: Vocabulary
Guess what the words mean. Circle a letter.
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 officer.
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 fish.
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.
© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE
61
Name
Worksheet 1: How current electricity
is made in a traditional power station
Write the sentences.
1.
4.
2.
3.
5.
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.
© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE
62
Name
Worksheet 2: How electricity is
made in a wind farm
Write the sentences.
1.
3.
2.
4.
5.
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.
© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE
63
Topic 2: Static electricity and current electricity
Note: This follows on from Topic 1.
What you need
Key language
occur naturally
flash
spark
build up of electrical charge
gigantic electric spark
gain/lose something
static electricity
electrons
Some inflated 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.
opposite charge
release energy
stick up
First ideas
See Introduction for suggestions on how to introduce the Factbook for the
first time.
Mixed ability teaching
See Introduction for suggestions on how to use the activities identified by
and
the
icons.
Before reading
Review 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 electricity
Give 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.
The children could then reread the sections to themselves or in small groups.
Ask some of the more confident children to read a short section aloud to
the class.
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Answers:
1. T
2. T
3. F. (It is about 9.65 km
long.)
4. T
5. F. (You brush electrons
onto it.)
After reading
Worksheet: More facts about static and current electricity
Answers:
Give 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.
1. S
Additional activities
Simplified questions and answers (page 69): See Introduction for suggestions
5. S
2. C
3. C
4. S
6. C
on how to use these.
7. S
Further reading: You could now read Lightning strike on page 14 of the
8. S
Factbook.
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Name
Worksheet: Static electricity
and current electricity
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 flow around a circuit.
5. When you run a balloon over your hair, you brush little wires onto it.
© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE
66
Name
Worksheet: More facts about
static and current electricity
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 flow.
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.
© Cambridge University Press 2010 PHOTOCOPIABLE
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Topic 3: Batteries
Note: This follows on from Topic 2.
What you need
Key language
store something
huge
battery
chemical reaction
immediately
A watch (battery
powered).
A mobile phone.
A laptop (on battery
power).
A lemon.
A galvanised nail.
A copper coin.
tiny
go flat
First ideas
See Introduction for suggestions on how to introduce the Factbook for the
first time.
Mixed ability teaching
See Introduction for suggestions on how to use the activities identified by
and
the
icons.
Before reading
Here 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 flat.
Reading
Read 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.
The children could then reread the sections to themselves or in small groups.
Ask some of the more confident children to read a short section aloud
to the class.
After reading
Demonstrate how to make a battery from a lemon. See page 9 of the Factbook
and also ‘Useful link’.
Additional activities
Simplified questions and answers (page 69): See Introduction for suggestions
on how to use these.
Further reading: Read First electric car on page 12 and Electric force: Alessandro
Volta on page 16 of the Factbook.
Useful link
http://www.nuffy.net/articles/lemon-battery.html
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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 flow?
A: Electricity flows 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 flash 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 flowing. Current
electricity has a steady flow 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 flat?
A: Batteries go flat when the chemicals
inside them can no longer make
electrons flow.
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
69
It’s quiz time! ideas and answers
You will find 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 finishers.
Answer key
Activity 1
2. F
You have more chance of being struck by lightning than winning the lottery.
3. F
The average stroke of lightning is about 9.65 kilometres long.
4. F
Electricity was first used in homes in the late 1800s.
5. T
6. T
Activity 2
2. Alessandro Volta
3. Michael Faraday
4. Thomas Edison
Activity 3
Activity 4
2. Nikola Tesla
3. Alessandro Volta
1
2
4. Nikola Tesla
4
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The mystery word is ‘energy’.
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