"Why Do We Need Electricity?"

• practice plotting and interpreting data on a bar graph.
• Students will reflect in their journals about how their lives would change without electricity.

Language Arts
2.5.2 Write a brief description of a familiar object, person, place, or event.
2.5.5 Use descriptive words when writing.
2.5.6 Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person.
3.5.2 Write descriptive pieces about people, places, things, or experiences.
3.5.4 Use varied word choices to make writing interesting.
3.5.5 Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person.
3.7.2 Connect and relate experiences to those of a speaker.
4.4.3 Write informational pieces with multiple paragraphs.
4.5.5 Use varied word choices to make writing interesting.
4.5.6 Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person.
4.7.1 Ask thoughtful questions and respond orally to relevant questions with appropriate elaboration.
5.4.3 Write informational pieces with multiple paragraphs.
5.5.5 Use varied word choices to make writing interesting.
5.5.6 Write for different purposes and to a specific audience or person, adjusting tone and style as appropriate.

Mathematics
2.1.11 Collect and record numerical data in systematic ways.
2.1.12 Represent, compare, and interpret data using tables, tally charts, and bar graphs.
4.6.1 Represent data on a number line and in tables.

• the students' daily log from the preassessment
• copies of "Electricity-A Household Word" activity sheets
• graph paper

1. Have students use the electricity log that they kept for the preassessment and make a list of the electrical appliances and other items that require electricity in the home. Give them a diagram of the various rooms in a house, and encourage them to use it if it helps.

2. Instruct children to label the items that they have on their list according to how many times they are used in their homes. For example, draw a blue star next to items that are used daily. Draw a red square next to items that are used several times a week. Draw a green circle next to items that are used a few times a month. Draw an orange triangle next to items that are only used a few times a year.

Sequence of Instruction

1. Once the individual students have labeled their lists, have them get into small groups and compare what they have found. Which label appeared most often? What does this tell us? Were you surprised by the results?
2. Give student a graph to plot the information that they found. Before plotting their information, have each group predict what the graph will look like. What kind of graph will you use?
3. Instruct students to plot their information on the graph and complete the assignment.
   • Were their predictions accurate?
   • Does the graph represent what they found in their data?
   • What does this say about our everyday use of electricity?
   • Did you expect these results?
4. Pull the class together and share the results.
   • What did you learn?
   • Were you able to see it more clearly on the graph?
5. Explain to the students that we will be studying electricity for the next couple of weeks. Although it may not be something that everyone understands or likes, it is something that is very important to our everyday lives. It is also something that we often take for granted. In 1879 (just over one hundred years ago) Thomas Edison produced the first electric lamp. Soon after that, in 1882, the first public electric power stations began operating in London and New York. Imagine that you were growing up in a time (1850Ős) when electricity, as you know it, had not yet been discovered. Write a description of what your life would be like without electricity. What would you do to have fun? How would you create light after dark? How would these things affect a day at school?

Closure

1. Have children write 3/4 of a page on what it would be like to live without electricity. Share their descriptions in class the next day. Would they have like to live in that time period? Why or Why not?

• Did the students create bar graphs about how they use electricity in their everyday lives?
• Did the students draw conclusions from their graphs ?
• Were the students' reflections carefully written and demonstrate an understanding of how their lives would change without electricity? (Their journals should include what would change regarding leisure activities, school, cooking, etc.)