Lesson sequence: Inquiry Question - What is Energy?

Session
(48 mins)
Focus
What will students know
and be able to do?
What are the main learning
activities?
What are the
assessment tasks?
1-2
Understanding
energy and
identifying
energy types
Define energy: the ability to do
work or the ability to make
things happen
Identify active energy types
(kinetic, thermal, sound, light
and electrical)
Identify stored energy types
(chemical, nuclear, gravitational
potential and elastic potential
energy)
Identify sources of different
energy types
Measurements for energy: joules
(J), kilojoules (kJ) and mega
joules (MJ)

Brainstorm students pre-existing
ideas about energy. What is energy?
What does it do? Where does it come
from? How do we use it? What types
of energy are used around the home
e.g. food labels, gas and energy bills?
Demonstration:
Make a spinning snake
Use worksheet to match energy
types to their description

Identify different energy sources
including looking at energy
efficiency labels

Observation of different types of
energy used in the school











Complete Energy worksheet
3
Energy
Transformations
and efficentcy
Calculate the percentage energy
efficiency of energy converters
given input and output energies
Construct sankey diagrams to
display energy efficiency and
inefficiency ratings
ICT use: Student watch the Honda
Accord energy transformations
advertisement
Students draw Sankey diagrams to
show wasted energy forms,
including those of an incandescent
light bulb
Review
Complete sankey diagram
worksheet
Session
(48 mins)
Focus
What will students know
and be able to do?
What are the main learning
activities?
What are the
assessment tasks?


4 Energy Transfer
Understand that energy can be
transferred from one object to
another without changing
type/form
Heat transfer through
conduction, convection and
radiation

Experiment: Design and make a
coffee cup that will retain its heat.
Test it and write a report
Report on design activity to
demonstrate understanding energy
transfer
5 Car crash practical
To understand the factors
involved in car impacts
To identify factors like speed,
force and restraint
Experiment: Student design car
crash practical to investigating the
effects of applying different forces
and motion to familiar objects
ICT use TAC Clips:
1. Seat belt commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=tywC-gRXbq0
2. Speeding commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=5Z23CzSONiU
3. Air bags purpose with crash test
dummies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=8adfGDQ-uRA

Students submit responses to the
questions on the practical

Conservation of
Understand the Law of
Conservation of Energy that
Demonstrations:
Daniell cell and a lemon battery
Students prepare and give a brief











6 8















Energy energy can never be created
or destroyed, it can only be
converted from one form to
another
Identify energy transformations
in a range of situations
Represent energy
transformations with words,
arrows and graphs
Make predictions about energy
use in various situations
Turing on a torch
Glow stick

Students use skate park energy
interactive to understand kinetic
energy, gravity and friction








Students are shown energy
transformations animations and
answer questions
presentation using graphs to
represent the energy content of
different substances and arrows to
demonstrate energy
transformations

























5 8
(cont.)





Students watch the Circus Physics
material on the Russian Barre
routine and answer questions on
kinetic and potential energy



Students submit responses to the
energy transformation questions















Students submit responses to the
questions related to kinetic and
potential energy


9 -10 Energy Analysed
Understand that energy
converters produce energy of
unwanted forms
Appreciate the inefficiency of an
electric incandescent light bulb
and the quest to develop a globe
with higher efficiency
Calculate the percentage energy
efficiency of energy converters
given input and output energies
Work collaboratively to identify
questions and problems in
relation to energy, and conduct
investigations and report results
Students look at energy efficient
housing design and complete
calculations for energy types,
energy efficiency and energy
conversions

Experiment: Students design an
experiment investigating a feature
of an energy efficient house e.g.
thermal conductivity of building
materials

Conduct a web search on one aspect
of energy efficient housing e.g.
relationship between height of
window, latitude and width of eaves
that will provide summer shade and
passive solar heating in winter

Percentage Energy Efficiency
Worksheets: calculations of
percentage energy efficiency.
Differentiated levels of difficulty
involving easier calculations, visual
cues and more accessible language
Project: Energy Transformations
Rube Goldberg Challenge

Students work in teams to design
and demonstrate a working
machine, completing a task in the
home with more energy efficiency:
demonstrating different forms of
energy and explaining how
energy transfers and
transformations cause change in
simple systems
using appropriate language and
representations to communicate
science ideas, methods and
findings
identifying and constructing
questions and problems that
they can investigate scientifically
plan experiments, identifying
variables to be changed,
measured and controlled
A written report outlining the
development process is also
submitted
11 Revision
Class discussion / Revision
Types, forms and measurements
of energy
Explaining and describing
different energy forms and their
uses
Analysing why different design
choices make homes more or
less energy efficient
Energy rating label system
benefits and deficits
Reflecting on what was learnt
from the Rube Goldberg
Challenge

12
Inquiry Project/
unit assessment
Unit assessment Students work in teams to design
and demonstrate a working
machine, completing a task in the
home with more energy efficiency:
demonstrating different forms of
energy and explaining how
energy transfers and
transformations cause change in
simple systems