Programme 19: Circuits

Teacher's Notes

Suggestions for programme use

Each programme in the Science Bank series is 15 minutes long and is divided into three parts, which focus on different aspects of the subject. The programmes use a combination of demonstration experiments, animated diagrams which explain the processes and real-life footage showing scientific applications.

The programmes are useful for the following reasons:

• They can be used when you are teaching a subject, in order to enrich your teaching.
• Some of the experiments can be repeated by students in a school laboratory. These are indicated in the programme outlines.
• Other experiments would be impossible to do at school.
• The animated diagrams make processes easier to understand.
• There are examples of how the scientific principles are applied in the real world.

They also make an ideal resource for revision classes.

Before viewing a programme, you could ask students to revise the subject matter by reading the relevant chapter in their textbook. You may also want to discuss the subject matter immediately before viewing.

Questions are posed in the programme dialogue and these are printed in bold in the programme outlines, so that you can stop the video as the questions are asked. The students can then respond immediately, giving answers based upon their current knowledge and understanding. You may want to rewind the video and show the experiments or animated diagrams again.

After viewing the programme, go over the main content and, in particular, the implications of the subject matter to 'real life'. You could get students to review relevant sections in their textbooks and answer the questions posed in the programme more fully. Alternatively the students could be given the questions as extended assignments. Such assignments should include as much detail, diagrams and use of the correct scientific terms as possible.