LESSON 1:   ON THE MOVE

What is energy?

OBJECTIVE

The student recognizes that energy may be changed in form and with varying efficiency.

TIME

2 Class periods

MATERIALS

Bulletin Board prepared with the word ENERGY
Markers
post it notes
books and other resources
pencil
paper

VOCABULARY

Energy - Use Glossary at: The Learning Center 
 

PROCEDURE

1.  Students will brainstorm what they know 
about energy and how energy is being used in
the classroom.  These will be listed on the word ENERGY which will be posted on a bulletin board in giant letters.

2.  Students will  write down questions that they have about energy on post it notes and post them on the bulletin board.

3.  Students will work in pairs to begin their search on “What is Energy?” Students will research at the The Energy Store and other resources prepared at a center.

4.  If they have not found answers to the questions they wrote on the post it notes, they
will e-mail Dr. Questar or Dr. Universe and the question.  As they receive responses to their e-mail questions they will post the responses on the bulletin board.

5. The students will share their findings on “What is Energy?”  in a final  project that will be ongoing throughout the unit.
    a. The students will receive an Electronic Scavenger Hunt handout (See Scavenger Hunt)  with all the  URLs to look for in the internet and other software, which they will use every time they do research.
    b. Using the scavenger hunt handout, the student will create a collage using pictures from the Internet, software and scan pictures from books.
    c.  Using the scavenger hunt handout, the student will create a booklet about energy which will include answers to questions from the scavenger hunt handout and they will include worksheets that they do for each lesson and for homework.

       (Note:  A copy of work completed must be printed for each student to place
         in their individual notebooks.)

ONGOING ACTIVITIES

    a.  Scavenger Hunt (finding answers to questions and copying and pasting pictures to create the collage).
    b.  Writing responses in Science Journals to experiment observations and other information researched that day.
 

HOME LEARNING

Print worksheet at Energy .  
Go into Poor Richard's Energy Almanac.  
Print Ben Franklin's Hottest Invention. 
Connect the dots to find out what is the invention.  Do further research on Benjamin Franklin and write to tell what interesting facts you found out about him.