4th Grade Static

Our fourth grade AIG enrichment study groups have been discussing electricity. We began our work by using words and pictures to describe what students understood about Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite experiment. This initial assignment was a baseline for student understanding. We then read a reader’s theater play describing what Franklin actually thought and did. We discussed the scientific process and translated Franklin’s experiments to an outline of this process. We also discussed the reasons behind static electricity by reviewing a model of the atom. Our groups performed some simple experiments. One was to charge balloons with static and then see whether they repelled or attracted. Students described this experiment using the scientific process. Students also designed their own experiments to show the properties of static. They wrote lab reports using the scientific process to describe their work. Finally, students were again asked to use pictures and words to describe Franklin’s experiment and what they understood about electricity and static. This post-unit activity can be compared to the initial assignment as a measure of the growth of student understanding. I ask you to compare these two assignments (they are dated) and see how our students have learned. Students also reflected on their learning in writing. Check out some pictures posted on January 2!