step 1 of 6
Last time Ben built the class torch. One wire from the cell to the bulb, one wire from the bulb back to the cell, and it lit. This morning Zoe picks the torch up and the bulb stays dark.
What should the class do first?
What a learner can do afterwards
- Predict whether a lamp will light by tracing the circuit for a complete loop
- Explain that a gap anywhere in the circuit breaks the loop and the bulb won't light
- Identify the fault in a non-working circuit (e.g. loose wire, missing connection)
1 · Read
Ben's torch went dark, so trace the circuit like a path before swapping parts. Start at the cell, follow each wire, and check that the path connects all the way back to the cell. If the path is complete, the bulb lights. If there's a break anywhere, it won't. A wire that only looks joined but does not touch still counts as a break.
Try it together
Zara looks at her circuit: a cell, two wires, and a bulb. She traces the loop with her finger, cell to wire to bulb to wire and back to the cell. Every connection touches the next one, so she knows the bulb will light before she even flips it on.
Good to know
A gap doesn't have to be a missing wire. Sometimes a wire looks connected but isn't quite touching. Check every single connection, not just most of them, since one gap anywhere stops the whole loop.
To predict whether a bulb lights, trace the whole loop from the cell and back. If there is one gap anywhere, it stays off.
The rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
Try it yourself
Break the loop in four different places and find out which ones stop the bulb.
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
Then practise
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.