This engaging, hands-on workshop is ideal for reinforcing your children’s learning about electricity in Key Stage 2 and developing problem-solving skills. We will begin by reviewing the basic components of electrical circuits such as switches, batteries, lamps and buzzers, looking at the circuit symbols for each component and how to draw a circuit diagram. Then we’ll discuss what is needed for a simple circuit to work correctly, assessing children’s prior knowledge to enable the workshop to be scaffolded appropriately for your class. Our discussion will draw out ideas about how faulty circuits can be tested, preparing children to become ‘circuit detectives.’

Children will then work in small groups, rotating around 8 workstations, each with a different electrical circuit. Their challenge will be to identify the fault in each circuit using their knowledge of electricity, taking a systematic approach to problem-solving.

Each child will be provided with their own notebook to record their observations and results. At the end of the session, we’ll briefly review each of the circuits and summarise our learning together.

Curriculum links:

• Year 4 Programme of Study: Electricity
• Upper Key Stage 2 Programme of Study: Working scientifically
• Year 6 Programme of Study: Electricity

Documents:

• Risk Assessment for Circuit Detectives

Contact our schools team with any questions on [email protected].