One of my third grade students' favorite instructional units every year is exploring electric circuits. It's an area that my students have very little background knowledge about so they truly get to learn a lot while exploring. Of course, the best way for them to gain an understanding of things like parallel versus series circuits, polarity, switches, and conductors versus insulators is through actually creating and building circuits in a hands-on manner. A few years ago I discovered squishy circuit kits and was immediately impressed by the ease that students can safely experiment with circuits using only the materials in these packs. The kit that we have in our classroom is fabulous and loved by my students. I am requesting a second kit so that each student in my classroom will be able to have a set of materials to work with individually.
Providing this second kit for our classroom will put conductive and insulating dough, buzzers, fans, LED light bulbs, and more directly into the hands of each student allowing them to experiment and learn through hands-on trial and error.
With these kits, students will not just hear and read about electric circuits but they will problem solve, design, build, and create.
I am also requesting an Ari Robot for our classroom. This robot allows student to use use markers and colors as an introduction to coding. This will be an excellent way to expose my young third graders to the world of coding and help them build the foundation for more complex computational thinking.
More than a third of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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