Stage 6 ScienceEnglish Member

The Two Lantern Paths

Adventure · Teaches: Simple electric circuits: series and parallel · Featuring Tryphonia

The festival needed a string of lanterns lit. Tryphonia had a battery, wires and three small bulbs. “A circuit,” she explained, “is a full loop the electricity travels around. Break the loop, and the light goes out.”

She wired the first three bulbs in a single line, one after another. This is a series circuit (all parts on one path). All three glowed, but rather dimly (weakly), because they shared the battery’s push.

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This story teaches

Simple electric circuits: series and parallel

ScienceEnglish

Answer guide, for grown-ups

Ask each question, then compare. A child’s own words are perfect as long as the idea is right.

1. What is an electric circuit, and what happens if the loop is broken?

A circuit is a complete loop that the electricity travels around, and if the loop is broken the light goes out.

✓ Understood if the child defines the circuit as a complete loop and says breaking it stops the flow or light.

2. Why did all the series bulbs go dark when one was removed?

In a series circuit everything is on one single path, so one gap breaks the whole loop and the electricity has nowhere else to go.

✓ Understood if the child links the single series path to one gap stopping all the bulbs.

3. Why do the parallel bulbs stay lit when one is taken out?

In a parallel circuit each bulb sits on its own separate branch, so removing one still leaves a complete loop for the others.

✓ Understood if the child says each bulb has its own path so the others keep working.

4. Why are the lights in a house wired in parallel, not series?

So that one broken bulb does not darken the whole home.

✓ Understood if the child notes one failing bulb should not switch off all the others.

Maths Moment: The 6 volts are shared equally between 3 bulbs, so 6 / 3 = 2 volts for each bulb.

For parents, Cambridge curriculum

Mapped to these Cambridge Primary objectives. Open a framework to verify.

Science

Stage 6 · Electricity
Construct simple series and parallel circuits and explain how the arrangement affects the brightness of bulbs.
Verify in Cambridge Science (0097) ↗

English

Stage 6 · Vocabulary
Use technical vocabulary accurately to explain a process.
Verify in Cambridge English (0058) ↗