In Year 4, our science topic for this half-term has been electricity. To begin the topic, we identified different electrical appliances and whether they were battery powered or mains powered. From this we started to look at closed circuits and open circuits. 

We learnt how a closed circuit allows the electricity to pass through, and an open one does not. 

This led into a great investigation looking at what materials allow electricity to pass through and which ones do not. As scientists, we spoke about how to make it a fair test, that we would only change on independent variable - the object. This links with our science vision of:

Be academic. 

Be curious. 

Be practical. 

Children were given different objects and had to think about what materials the objects were made of. This created some fantastic curiosity as some objects had different materials, e.g., the scissors which had metal and plastic. With the different objects, they added them into their circuits. If the bulb lit, then the electricity passed through, and they knew it was a conductor. However, if the bulb did not light, they knew the material was and insulator. Everyone had a great time exploring with different objects and materials around the classroom. 

We found that metal was a good conductor and other materials like rubber and cotton were insulators. Our shock discovery, was that tap water is a conductor. 

Here are our results!