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.