Magnets and Electricity

Magnets and Electricity:  What would your life be like without electricity?  Fourth grade students explore this question and have the opportunity to ask many more.  This unit of study examines electric currents as a flow of electricity.  Students are first introduced to magnets and begin to explore the relationship between magnetism and electricity.  Next, the young scientists learn about the basic properties of electricity as they try to light bulbs and build simple circuits and switches.  Then, students discover what materials conduct electricity and what ones are insulators.  Finally students design their own investigations to explore questions they have wondered about during the unit of study.