Abstract
This paper examines whether elementary school students’ understanding of parallel and serial connections of dry cells was improved by teaching the concept of electric voltage.
Students in the experimental group were taught the concept of electric voltage for 20 minutes using analogy of water flow, such as, the dry cell is like a water pump to uplift water and the voltage stands for the height of uplift.
The experimental group, who was taught electric voltage, showed a significantly higher achievement score than the control group in the post test. Moreover, the way of thinking about the brightness of the miniature bulb differed between groups on the circuit in which three dry cells were connected parallel.
On the other hand, students in the experimental group showed more scientific answers to a descriptive question about electricity compared to the control group. The concrete understanding about phenomena regarding electricity may promote a scientific way of thinking.
The results of this study imply that we can introduce the concept of electric voltage to elementary school science class if we exercise ingenious ways of teaching, even though the concept is not being taught under the present elementary school curriculum in Japan.
