OpenStax
Open Stax: Conservation of Energy
In the following tutorial, students will learn about the law of conservation of energy. They will read about some of the many forms of energy. They will understand the definition of efficiency of an energy conversion process as the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Falling Water
Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. They follow good experiment...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Waterwheel Work
Students learn the history of the waterwheel and common uses for water turbines today. They explore kinetic energy by creating their own experimental waterwheel from a two-liter plastic bottle. They investigate the transformations of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power Your House With Water
Students learn how engineers design devices that use water to generate electricity by building model water turbines and measuring the resulting current produced in a motor. Students work through the engineering design process to build...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Bombs Away!
In this hands-on activity students learn create a device to protect a dropped egg and deliver it close to a target. Students learn about engineering as well as potential and kinetic energy and energy transfer
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Puck Stops Here
After learning about transfer of energy, specifically the loss of kinetic energy to friction, students get a chance to test friction. In groups they are given a wooden block, different fabrics, and weights and asked to design the "best"...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy Skate Park
This activity focuses on the conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Students work with a virtual laboratory set at a skate park. They make predictions of graphs before they use the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy on a Roller Coaster
This activity utilizes hands-on learning with the conservation of energy and the interaction of friction. Students use a roller coaster track and collect position data. The students then calculate velocity, and energy data. After the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy Storage Derby and Proposal
In Activity 5, as part of the Going Public step, students demonstrate their knowledge of how potential energy may be transferred into kinetic energy. Students design, build and test vehicle prototypes that transfer various types of...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Hybrid Vehicle Design Challenge
This module is written for a first-year algebra-based physics class, though it could easily be modified for conceptual physics. It is intended to provide hands-on activities to teach the overarching concept of energy, as it relates to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Move It!
Mechanical energy is the most easily understood form of energy for young scholars. When there is mechanical energy involved, something moves. Mechanical energy is a very important concept to understand. Engineers need to know what...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Imagine Life Without Friction
Students are introduced to the concept of inertia and its application to a world without the force of friction acting on moving objects. When an object is in motion, friction tends to be the force that acts on this object to slow it down...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Physics of Roller Coasters
Students explore the physics utilized by engineers in designing today's roller coasters, including potential and kinetic energy, friction, and gravity. First, students learn that all true roller coasters are completely driven by the...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Pushing It Off a Cliff
Lesson 2 moves into the Research and Revise step and focuses on the conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Students start out with a virtual laboratory, and then move into the notes and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: It's Tiggerific!
In Lesson 3, as part of the Research and Revise step, learners investigate potential energy held within springs (elastic potential energy). Class begins with a video of either spring shoes or bungee jumping. Students then move on into...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Latex and Hybrids: What's the Connection?
An engineering challenge where students create small-scale models from which their testing results could be generalized to large-scale latex tubing for a hydraulic accumulator. They brainstorm ideas about how latex can be used in a...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Introduction to Potential and Kinetic Energy
Energy is the ability of a system to do work. That system may be batteries powering an electronic game system or windmills capturing wind energy to power a city. When an object or an organism does work, energy is transferred to another...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: The Great Egg Drop!
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? One might ask the same question about potential and kinetic energy. Make observations while you watch the video below. Think about what scientific conclusion you could make from your...
Physics Classroom
The Physics Classroom: The Work Energy Theorem
This page explores the quantitative relationship between work and mechanical energy in situations in which there are no external forces doing work. It is a basic analysis of situations in which mechanical energy is conserved. Examples...
NBC
Nbc Learn: Science of Golf
NBC Learn, in partnership with the United States Golf Association, uncovers the science, technology, engineering and math behind the game of golf. For lesson plans provided by the National Science Teachers Association, open the video and...
Georgia State University
Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Kinetic Energy
This site from Georgia State University Physics Department defines kinetic energy and compares and contrasts it with other forms of energy. Provides an equation and links to further, more-detailed information.
Chem4kids
Chem4 Kids: Thermochemistry
This site provides a general overview of thermochemistry, the division of chemistry that deals with temperature in chemical reactions. Content explores what heat and cold really are, the heat and energy around you, and a bit about Lord...
American Chemical Society
Middle School Chemistry: Heat, Temperature, and Conduction
Students observe, describe, and draw a model on the molecular level, showing how energy is transferred from one substance to another through conduction.
![Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Paddle Power [Pdf] Activity](https://content.lessonplanet.com/knovation/original/240133-269c480d57012b98a42b2a6067ff8946.jpg?1661182394 "Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Paddle Power [Pdf] Activity")
PBS
Pbs Kids: Design Squad Challenge: Paddle Power [Pdf]
Hands-on challenge to design and build a paddle boat that moves across water using a rubber band as its power source. Provides full list of materials with ideas on how to design, build, test, and redesign it if necessary. Activity...