Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Puck Stops Here

For Teachers 5th - 7th
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"...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy Skate Park

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy on a Roller Coaster

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy and the Pogo Stick

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity utilizes hands on learning with the conservation of energy with the inclusion of elastic potential energy. Students use pogo sticks to experience the elastic potential energy and its conversion to gravitational potential...
Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy Storage Derby and Proposal

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Exploring Solar Power

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This unit provides students the opportunity to explore methods engineers have devised for harnessing sunlight to generate power. Students will initially explore heat transfer and heat storage through the construction, testing, and...
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Hybrid Vehicle Design Challenge

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Move It!

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Mechanical energy is the most easily understood form of energy for students. When there is mechanical energy involved, something moves. Mechanical energy is a very important concept to understand. Engineers need to know what happens when...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy Transfer in Musical Instruments

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This lesson covers concepts of energy and energy transfer utilizing energy transfer in musical instruments as an example. More specifically, the lesson explains the two different ways in which energy can be transferred between a system...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Imagine Life Without Friction

For Teachers 5th - 7th
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...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: From Sunlight to Electric Current

For Teachers 6th - 8th
The lesson will first explore the concept of current in electrical circuits. Current will be defined as the flow of electrons. Photovoltaic (PV) cell properties will then be introduced. This will lead to the principle of "Conservation of...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Pushing It Off a Cliff

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: It's Tiggerific!

For Teachers 9th - 10th
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...
Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How a Hybrid Works

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In Lesson 4, students conclude the Research and Revise step of the Legacy Cycle, as they investigate different forms of hybrid engines as well as briefly conclude a look at the different forms of potential energy. Students apply basic...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Science in Focus Energy: What Is Energy?

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
A video workshop looking at the concept of energy. Discussions include energy as it is used in everyday language to the complex scientific meaning of energy. Presents common student misconceptions, history, and the importance of energy...
Handout
Georgia State University

Georgia State University: Hyper Physics: Potential Energy

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from Georgia State University Physics Department defines and explains the concept of potential energy. Using equations and graphics to illustrate the idea, it discusses the many types of potential energy (gravitational,...
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Work Energy Theorem

For Students 9th - 10th
Using diagrams, illustrations, and relevant data, students will calculate the net work done on an object, the change in an object's velocity, and the change in an object's kinetic energy.
Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy of Motion

For Teachers 6th - 8th
By taking a look at the energy of motion all around us, students learn about the types of energy and their characteristics. They first learn about the two simplest forms of mechanical energy: kinetic and potential energy, as illustrated...
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Ap Physics: Conservation of Energy

For Students 11th - 12th
By the end of this section, you will be able to explain the law of the conservation of energy; describe some of the many forms of energy; and define efficiency of an energy conversion process as the fraction left as useful energy or...
Unknown Type
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Work, Energy, and Energy Resources: Problems & Exercises

For Students 11th - 12th
This is a list of 74 problems/exercises to solve over the content of Chapter 7: Work, Energy, and Energy Resources from the AP Physics online text.
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Work, Energy, and Energy Resources: Summary

For Students 11th - 12th
This is a summary of the information in Chapter 7: Work, Energy, and Energy Resources for the AP Physics I course online.
Handout
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Work, Energy, and Energy Resources: Glossary

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a glossary of words and definitions of terms having to do with work, energy, and energy resources.
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: The First Law of Thermodynamics

For Students 11th - 12th
By the end of this section, you will be able to define the first law of thermodynamics; describe how conservation of energy relates to the first law of thermodynamics; identify instances of the first law of thermodynamics working in...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Student Analysis of a Person Jumping on a Trampoline

For Teachers 9th - 10th
For this activity, students learn about conservation of mechanical energy as they measure the velocity of a girl jumping on a trampoline using a direct measurement video with an embedded frame counter and ruler.