What sort of light will work for you?
5
Representing electrical circuits
Formal circuit diagrams are useful because they strip away unnecessary detail to reveal the connections between the battery and the components, and the path that the electric current will take. If the child looking at the diagram has difficulty in seeing the relationship between the circuit diagram and the arrangements of wires, batteries and components before them, this usefulness is not only lost, but the circuit diagram is counter productive, as it only serves to confuse the child.
It may be useful for some children to draw what they see as the electric circuit, as a precursor to using circuit diagrams. It is important that such drawing is not too time consuming. The purpose of the drawing is to show the way in which the components are connected. So a certain amount of representational licence is possible - it isn't necessary to draw the letters on the battery; or the teeth on the crocodile clip.
In this way children will be able to produce a drawing which they perceive as describing the circuit that they can see. You can help them substitute symbols into this drawing as they become confident in using the drawing to explain what is happening in the circuit and need to do more drawings to either get their points across or design different circuits. There will be a halfway house when the circuit diagrams are a mix of their own representational drawings and symbols that they have made up, and formal circuit diagram symbols. This may well look very messy, but it is important to remember that this is a staging post on a journey; a journey towards being able to read, draw and use formal circuit diagrams. For some children without this halfway house they will never reach the final destination.