Grade 5 Electricity and Magnetics

Students, this is an exciting hands on unit! You will have an opportunity to learn about electricity by building and testing circuits. We will use batteries, bulbs and wires, we will make simple circuits and test them. Through such tests, we will discover that a circuit requires a closed pathway for electricity and that some materials conduct electricity and some do not. We will take this knowledge to determine how how electric currents can affect a nearby magnet and how it is used to make electomagnets and motors.

Electricity and Magnetism Vocabulary

Please become familiar with the vocabulary posted below.

Alternating Current:	An electric current that regularly changes the direction it flows. In the U.S. it changes 60 times per second
Atom:	the smallest piece of an element that still has the properties of that element.
Battery:	more than one electric cell connected in series or in parallel.
Circuit:	a closed path for electricity to flow through, usually, but not necessarily a wire made of a conductor.
Circuit Breaker:	a switch-like device that protects electrical circuits from excess current.
Circuit Diagram:	an engineering plan that uses lines and symbols to represent electrical circuits.
Closed Circuit:	a circuit with no breaks or interruptions.
Conductor:	material that electricity flows through with relative ease. Good conductors have low resistance.
Current Electricity:	moving electric charges.
Direct Current:	the electric current provided by batteries and electric cells. Direct current only flows in one direction
Electric Cell:	a single source of direct current that changes chemical potential energy to electrical energy
Electricity:	anything involving electric charges, but usually refers to static, direct current, and alternating current electricity
Electromagnet:	magnet produced by an electric current, usually a core of iron wrapped in a conductor.
Electron:	a particle of matter much smaller than an atom that carries a negative charge
Fuse:	a device to protect electrical circuits from excess current, usually a thin piece of metal mounted in a threaded, glass topped case.
Generator:	a device that uses a moving magnetic field and a coiled conductor to produce alternating electric current.
Grounding:	discharging an electric charge to Earth.
Insulator:	a material with a very high resistance to electricity
Magnet:	a thing or device that attracts other magnets, iron-containing materials, and other metals such as nickel
Magnetic Field:	the invisible field that carries magnetic force to other objects.
Magnetic Pole:	the area of a magnet where its attraction is strongest.
Open Circuit:	a circuit with a break in it.
Parallel Circuit:	all or part of an electrical circuit that electric current divides to flow through
Proton:	a particle of matter smaller than an atom that carries a positive charge.
Rechargeable Battery:	a battery that can have energy added by household current and a special recharger. Once most batteries are used up, they can’t be recharged.
Resistance:	a measure of how well a given material will conduct electricity. Good conductors have little resistance. Light bulbs have a higher resistance. Insulators have a very high resistance.
Series Circuit:	all or part of an electrical circuit where electric current is undivided and flows through one circuit part after another.
Short Circuit	a dangerous condition in which electric current flows through a path of very little resistance and bypasses all or some of the resistors in a circuit.
Static Electricity:	an excess of non-moving electric charge in one place, caused by an excess of non-moving electric charge in one place, caused by an excess or a lack of electrons.
Switch:	a device to open or close an electrical circuit
Volt:	a measure of the “push” provided by an electric current source