Energy and Its Forms

Potential and Kinetic Energy

Energy and Its Forms

Duration: 60 minutes

Notes / Activity

Using DIY materials:

1. Design a tool to prevent eggs from breaking

  • 4-PS3-2: Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents. [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measurements of energy.] 
  • 4-PS3-3: Ask questions and predict outcomes about the changes in energy that occur when objects collide. [Clarification Statement: Emphasis is on the change in the energy due to the change in speed, not on the forces, as objects interact.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include quantitative measurements of energy.]

By the end of this lesson, the student should able to:

  • Identify the difference between kinetic and potential energy.
  • State the change between kinetic and potential energy that takes place

Potential energy    kinetic energy

Lesson Plan

Lesson Introduction

Duration: 10 min
  • Egg
  • Bucket
  • Ask students if they have ever heard of disaster relief supplies being dropped off by an airplane. 
  • Explain to students who do not understand: [Disaster relief groups and the armed forces must deliver life-sustaining and delicate supplies of food and equipment to people in places that are very hard to reach, often there are no nearby roads, trains and airports.]
  • Tell students that you will drop an egg into a paint bucket to simulate how the relief groups deliver the supplies of food to places.
  • Ask students to predict what will happen to the egg. (The egg will crack and splatter)
  • Drop the egg into the bucket and have students observe what happens. Tell students that sometimes the food supplies may not land on the targeted area and they will end up in the same plight as the egg. 
  • Elicit from students:

 

“How can we prevent the egg from breaking?”  

Accept all answers at this point. 

Explore

Duration: 30 min
  • Prepare the following materials before the lesson:

Eggs, plastic bags, foam, Tupperware, paper towels, tape, scissors, paper, cotton balls, rubber bands, plastic grocery bags, yarn, foil, plastic wrap, egg carton, bubble wrap, ruler, and a target.

Eggs, plastic bags, foam, Tupperware, paper towels, tape, scissors, paper, cotton balls, rubber bands, plastic grocery bags, yarn, foil, plastic wrap, egg carton, bubble wrap, ruler, and a target.

  • Divide students into groups of 4. Have students design a tool to prevent an egg (representing the supplies) from breaking during a fall. 

 

  • Students will be given some materials to see which one they feel will shield the egg from cracking. Provide students some materials that they will then use to keep the egg from cracking. The students will each have an egg in a plastic bag and the teacher must reiterate to them that they are not to take it out of the bag. And they have only 10 minutes to put together the egg holder.
  • While students are creating their tool, ask students to think if the height of the drop affects how they will protect the egg. 
  • Have students test their tool after completing the structure. 
  • Note: Ensure student’s safety on higher drops. If needed, drop the eggs for the students.

Explain

Duration: 20 min
  • Have students explain if their tool has managed to protect their egg from breaking.  
  • Get students to discuss how they can improve their tool to protect their eggs better. 
  • Have each group to think and share with one another where the energy to make the eggs move comes from. 
  • Launch interactive to have students explore potential and kinetic energy. 
  • Introduce the formal terms of kinetic and potential energy. Show that the conservation of energy takes place more than one time by showing them a ball bouncing.
  • Get students to identify the energy that the egg has and the conservation of energy that takes place. (Potential energy change to kinetic energy when the egg drops)
  • Elicit from students:

 

Why does the ball change from potential energy to kinetic energy and then back to potential energy? 

Why does the egg have potential energy at the highest point?

Resources

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