School › Electricity › Ages 6–7
Electricity: making a bulb light up
What electricity does, how a circuit works, and how to stay safe. With a make-a-bulb-glow experiment using a battery.
Read
Electricity makes lamps shine, toys move and phones work. Some things get their electricity from a battery, others from a plug in the wall.[1]
Electricity needs a path to travel along, all the way round from the battery and back again. This path is called a circuit. If there is a gap, the electricity stops and the lamp goes out.[2]
A switch opens and closes the gap. Click it on, the circuit is complete and the lamp lights up. Click it off, there is a gap and the lamp goes dark.[2]
Electricity from the wall is much stronger than a battery and is dangerous. Never put fingers or anything else into a socket, keep electrical things away from water, and never touch them with wet hands.[6]
Try it: Make the bulb glow
You need
- A 1.5 V battery (AA or C) in a battery holder
- A small 1.5 V bulb in a bulb holder (or an LED for 1.5–3 V)
- Two short wires with crocodile clips
- Optional: a paper clip and two drawing pins on a piece of card, to make a switch
Safety
Use only small batteries. Never use plugs or sockets. If a wire or battery gets hot, unclip it straight away.
What to do
- Look at the battery: one end has a + and the other a −.
- Clip one wire from the + end of the battery to one side of the bulb holder.
- Clip the second wire from the other side of the bulb holder to the − end. Does the bulb light up?
- Undo one clip. What happens to the bulb?
- Optional: put your paper-clip switch in the circuit and switch the bulb on and off.
Play: Safe or not safe?
Is this safe to do, or not safe? Tap the right group.
Your best score is kept only on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Quiz
Other ages: Ages 10–11 · Ages 15–16