PERFORMANCE TASK STUDENT RESPONSE FORM

TASK: S2 - PATHFINDER
Grade 4

Student Name:  _______________________________________________

School Name:  _______________________________________________

School Code:  _________

Write your name, school name, and school code on the lines above. Do not open this packet until the directions tell you to do so. You will have a total of 45 minutes to complete this task. You may use up to 30 minutes to complete the group work.

GROUP ACTIVITY:

Suppose you are learning to be electricians. Part of what you must know is how to find where wires go when they are hidden inside walls.

On your table is a Puzzle Board with 6 metal contact points. Some of these contact points are connected with metal strips which conduct electricity, some are not. Since the bottom of the Puzzle Board is sealed, you cannot see where the metal strips are.

You job is to find which contacts in the Puzzle Board are connected by wires. Your group will experiment using a Tester and the Practice Board to help decode.

Working together, do the following:

1. Look at the Tester with its battery pack connected to the bulb. Touch the two prods at the ends of the wires on the Tester together. The Bulb should light. Discuss why touching the two clips together causes the bulb to light. Be sure to agree on the answer.

2. Look at the Practice Board. Some of the contact points are connected together under the board by metal wires, and some are not. On the Practice Board, the bottom is open so you can see where the metal strips are.

   Put the Practice Board on the table, and practice finding ways that the Tester can be used to tell where the connecting metal strips are under the board.

   Discuss the best way you could figure out where the connections are, even if you could not look under the board.

3. Now look at the Puzzle Board. Like the Practice Board, some of the contact points are connected and some are not, but you cannot see the metal strips on the Puzzle Board. Your group is to use what you have learned to figure out where the hidden connecting metal strips might be. Discuss ways to do this. Test your ideas. Make drawings on scratch paper to show where the connections might be. There may be some differences of opinion, but it is the group's job to agree. You may decide that there is more than one correct answer.

4. When the group agrees about the way the connections could be made inside the Puzzle Board, carefully draw the pattern of the metal strips in the outline of the board below. Compare your work to others while you do this. Draw in all the metal strips the group decides must be inside the Puzzle Board. Everyone should have a drawing that the group agrees is correct.

When everyone has finished drawing in the wires as you agreed they should be drawn, someone should tell the person in charge that your group has finished its work.

INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY

5. Make a drawing that shows all the parts of an electric circuit and the connections that are needed to make the bulb on the Tester light. Explain in words why these connections are needed to make the bulb light.

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

6. The new Puzzle Board you have been given is different from the one you used with the group. You also have your own Tester. Using what you learned with the group, tell what you will do to find where the hidden metal strips are connected to the contacts under the new board.

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

7. Do all of the tests you need to learn where the hidden metal strips in the new Puzzle Board are. Use scratch paper to help you remember the results. When you are ready, carefully draw the metal strips on the outline of the board below.
   

8. Suppose you have a battery-operated toy with a motor that doesn't work any more. You want to see if there is connecting wire inside the toy between one end of the battery and the contact point you see on the motor.
   • If you had a Tester like the one you have now, what would you do to find out?
     
   • Explain why that would tell you if there is a connecting wire.

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________

   __________________________________________________________________________