Innovation
New
Choose the Best Circuit Designs for Innovation
Students compare simple circuit designs to determine which best support innovations that use lighting, movement, or alert systems in everyday situations.
Grade
7-9
Duration
1 hour
Type
Group work
Overview
In this group activity, students compare simple circuit designs to determine which best support lighting, movement, or alert systems in everyday situations. Building on their understanding of electrical components, they investigate how electricity flows through circuits and how design choices affect control, safety, and efficiency. Students collect evidence and use criteria to select the most effective design for solving practical problems.
Instructions
What you'll need
- Choosing the Best Circuit Design Slideshow
- Choosing the Best Circuit Design Worksheet
- Design Scenario Cards
- Circuit Safety and Clean Energy Guide
For each group:
- AA battery pack (with safe casing)
- Alligator clip wires
- 2 LEDs
- 2 Small incandescent bulbs with holders
- DC motor
- Buzzer
- Switch
- Resistor(s), (optional, if available)
- Basic craft materials (optional: cardboard, tape, elastics)
- Circuit Safety Guide (if available)
Optional:
- Multimeter
- Electrical tape
- Masking tape (to hold wires in place on a flat surface)
Learning Launch
- Provide small groups of learners with electrical components and circuit materials. Review basic safety expectations such as: use only low-voltage materials, disconnect power before changing parts, and avoid connecting wires directly across the battery, which creates a short circuit.
- Share a simple definition of an electrical circuit: An electrical circuit is a complete, unbroken path that allows electric current to flow from a power source, through components, and back to the source.
- Invite groups to build a working circuit using one battery pack, two incandescent bulbs, wires, and an optional switch. Challenge them to rearrange the same components in a different way so the circuit still functions, including by creating one pathway for electricity and then trying an arrangement with more than one possible pathway.
Encourage learners to notice how the arrangement affects brightness, how easy it is to control, and whether it works reliably.
- Invite groups to briefly share patterns, differences, or surprises they observed.
- Provide each group with a Design Scenario Card. Ask them to read their scenario and discuss:
- Who will use this system?
- What does it need to do well?
- What challenges or limits might affect the design?
- Introduce the lesson challenge: Decide which circuit design works best for an innovation that lights, moves, alerts, or performs an action that improves everyday life.
- Distribute the Choosing the Best Circuit Design Activity Sheet. Invite groups to sketch an initial idea for a circuit design that could best meet their scenario’s needs. Emphasize that this is a starting idea that may change as they gather evidence.
Developing Understanding
(Test and Gather Evidence)
- Invite learners to share what they noticed during exploration about what made some circuit arrangements work better for their situation. Consolidate their ideas and co-construct criteria for an effective circuit design. A circuit design works best when it:
- meets the need,
- can be controlled safely,
- works reliably, and
- uses energy wisely.
- Invite learners to connect the criteria to their scenario and plan how to test their designs. Remind them that circuit parts can be arranged in different ways (for example, one path or more than one path, shared or separate control), and that arrangement choices can affect how a system works.
Ask them to think about:
- What might affect how well this circuit design works in our situation?
- What can we change or compare to test this fairly and gather evidence?
- Ask groups to build and test at least two different circuit designs by changing how parts are arranged or controlled, adjusting one factor at a time. Encourage them to gather evidence related to the criteria as they test.
- Direct learners to record observations and evidence in Step 2 of the activity sheet. Encourage them to revise their designs based on what they learn.
Reflect and Revise
(Make a Decision)
- Have groups use evidence and criteria to decide which circuit design works best for their situation and complete Step 3 of the activity sheet.
- Invite groups to share one decision and one reason with the class using criteria and evidence to explain their thinking.
- Ask learners to use the following questions to reflect on their learning, and explain their thinking:
- How did your thinking change? Why?
- Which test or setup most influenced your thinking?
- What would you improve next?
Modify or extend this activity
Modifications:
- Reducing the number of circuit designs learners compare.
- Providing pre-assembled example circuits for observation and analysis.
- Using printed diagrams or slides instead of physical components.
- Assigning specific circuit designs to small groups and sharing findings.
- Completing parts of the comparison together as a class.
Extensions:
- Inviting learners to redesign their circuit to better meet the criteria.
- Asking learners to adapt their design for a different scenario or user.
- Comparing two circuit designs and deciding which better meets the criteria.
- Connecting circuit choices to energy conservation or clean electricity systems.
Extension (Grades 7 focus: Electromagnetism in Circuit Design):
If groups include a DC motor in their circuit designs, invite them to reverse the battery connections and observe what changes.
Ask:
- What changed in how the system worked?
- In our scenario, would the direction of motion matter? Why?
- How might direction affect control, safety, or usefulness?
- What might this suggest about how motion is being produced?
Explain that motors work because electric current interacts with magnetic forces inside the motor. This interaction is called electromagnetism.
Invite learners to think about:
- How might understanding electromagnetism help someone design a more effective or controllable system?
Where might direction and control of motion matter in real-world electrical systems (e.g., pumps, fans, robotics, transportation systems)?
Curriculum Fit
Core Competencies
Communication
- Focusing on intent and purpose
- Acquiring and presenting information
- Working collectively
- Supporting group interactions
Thinking
- Questioning and investigating
- Designing and developing
- Reflecting and accessing
- Creating and innovating
- Generating and incubating
- Evaluating and developing
Personal and Social
- Building relationships
- Resolving problems
Science 7–9
Big Ideas
- The electromagnetic force produces both electricity and magnetism (Gr. 7).
- Evolution by natural selection provides an explanation for the diversity and survival of living things. (Gr.7)
- Energy can be transferred as both a particle and a wave (Gr.8)
- Electric current is the flow of electric charge (Grade 9).
Content
- Electricity generated in different ways (Gr.7)
- Electromagnetism (Gr. 7).
- Atomic theory provides evidence for the existence of atoms and molecules including electrons (Gr.8)
- Properties and behaviour of electric current (Gr.9).
Curricular Competencies
Questioning and Predicting
- Identify a question to answer or a problem to solve through scientific inquiry (Gr.7)
- Make predictions about finds to their inquiry (Gr.7)
- Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic (Gr.9)
Planning and Conducting
- Collaboratively plan a range of investigation types (Gr.7-9)
- Observe, measure, and record data with accuracy and precision (Gr.7)
- Measure and control variables through fair tests (Gr.8)
Processing and Analyzing
- Construct and use tables, graphs, and models (Gr.7)
- Seek patterns and connections to data (Gr.8)
- Use scientific understandings to draw conclusions (Gr.9)
Evaluating
- Identify possible sources of error and suggest improvements (Gr.8)
- Exercise a healthy, informed skepticism to evaluate claims (Gr.9)
Applying and Innovating
- Generate and introduce new or refined ideas when problem solving (Gr.7)
- Transfer and apply learning to new solutions (Gr.8)
- Consider the role of scientists in innovation (Gr.9)
Communication
- Communicate ideas, findings, and solutions (Gr.7-9)
Assessments
Opportunities for assessment are embedded throughout the activity through observation, discussion, and review of learners’ written work.
- Use learners’ initial sketches in Step 1 to gather insight into their current understanding of circuit design and system function.
- Use the Choosing the Best Circuit Design Activity Sheet to notice and support how learners:
- gather and record evidence from testing,
- apply shared criteria,
- connect observations to their chosen scenario, and
- compare different designs.
- Use learners’ testing conversations and group discussions to support evidence-based reasoning and appropriate scientific language.
- Use learners’ final decisions and written explanations to guide feedback on how effectively they use criteria and evidence to justify design choices.
- Use learners’ reflections to support flexible thinking and revision based on new information.
Teaching Notes
These notes offer optional guidance to support planning and facilitation. Teachers are encouraged to adapt the activity to suit their learners and setting.
They include suggestions for:
- supporting evidence-based decision making,
- using criteria effectively,
- supporting meaningful evidence collection,
- addressing common misconceptions,
- encouraging reflection and revision,
- managing safety and materials.
Learning Launch
- Allow time for individual thinking before group discussion.
- Encourage learners to explain their initial design ideas.
- Emphasize that early sketches are starting points, not final answers.
- Highlight that designs are expected to change after testing.
Developing Understanding
- Encourage learners to think about how each criterion applies to their scenario.
- Refer back to the criteria regularly during testing.
- Encourage learners to record observations while testing, not only afterward.
- Support learners in noticing changes in reliability, control, clarity, and consistency.
- Encourage learners to connect observations to design decisions.
- When discussing motor circuits, focus on the relationship between electric current and motion.
- Help learners connect classroom circuits to larger systems (power source → control → use).
- Highlight that efficient designs help make better use of clean electricity.
- When learners use motors, you may choose to briefly highlight that motion is produced through electromagnetism. Keep the focus on cause and effect rather than technical detail. Encourage learners to connect this idea to design decisions, such as direction of motion, control, and usefulness in their scenario.
Reflect and Revise
- Emphasize that revising ideas based on evidence is expected.
- Encourage learners to explain how testing influenced their decisions.
- Invite learners to compare different designs and reasoning.
- Reinforce that multiple designs may meet the criteria in different ways.
Addressing Common Misconceptions
Learners may initially believe that:
- the brightest or most powerful circuit is always the best,
- more parts always improve performance,
- “working” means “working well,”
- reliability only means “turns on.”
Rather than correcting these directly, encourage learners to revisit the criteria and their evidence.
Supporting Safe Practice
- Use only low-voltage power sources.
- Ensure power is disconnected before changing circuits.
- Reinforce that safe control is part of evaluation.
Supporting Reasoning and Student Voice
Use questions such as:
- How does this design meet each criterion?
- What evidence supports your choice?
- Where might this be used in real life?
- How did testing change your thinking?
Activity Materials
Select what you need below.
Choose The Best Circuit Design Worksheet
179 kb • pdf
Design Scenarios
145.1 kb • pdf
Circuit Safety And Clean Energy Guide
125.1 kb • pdf
