Potential and Kinetic Energy

This unit introduces potential energy and kinetic energy. Energy systems are explained using focus words including momentum, velocity, acceleration, inertia, friction, and gravity. Students will encounter all of these terms in middle school and high school science textbooks.

Activities

Scene: Keeping Track of Energy

Ms. Quintanilla's students Cooper, Olivia, and Hamza explore different kinds of energy and ways to track the movement of energy from one thing to another. Students consider the energy required when a ball rolls down a hill and strikes a solid block.

Duration: Approximately 100 minutes

Lesson: Kinetic vs. Potential Energy

An illustrated guide uses balls, swings, and more to explain the two big categories of energy: kinetic vs. potential. Students contrast potential and kinetic energy and consider how energy changes depending on an object's position or shape.

Duration: Approximately 45 minutes

Lab: Pendulum Energy

By considering the playground swing, looking at diagrams, and using real- world pendulums, students understand how kinetic and potential energy relate within a system.

Duration: Approximately 60 minutes

Lab: Rubber Band Energy

Students collect and analyze data from rubber bands to study the relationship between potential and kinetic energy within a system. Students measure the transfer of energy by investigating how far a cup moves when struck by a rubber band.

Duration: Approximately 50 minutes

Lesson: Get a Grip on Gravity

Get a "grip" on gravity through this illustrated guide. Discuss the contributions of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and a famous experiment conducted by Apollo 15 astronauts.

Duration: Approximately 60 minutes

Lesson: Speed vs. Velocity

Students consider the difference between speed and velocity.

Duration: Approximately 40 minutes

Reading: Why We Love Roller Coasters

Students explore our obsession with roller coasters since their introduction in the 17th century.

Duration: Approximately 25 minutes

Writing: Demo a Marble Run

Students think about audience as they prepare a persuasive argument addressed to younger students. Students apply what they have learned when they create models of two roller coasters – all with the goal to convince a younger cousin to “ride the big one.”

Duration: Approximately 90 minutes

Teacher Tune-ups

• How do position, distance, time, speed, velocity, acceleration, force, mass, and momentum relate to one another?
• How is a pendulum helpful in thinking about kinetic and potential energy?
• What is gravity?
• How do position, distance, time, speed, velocity, acceleration, force, mass, and momentum relate to one another?
• Can things moving through the air encounter friction?

 

Student View of Visuals and Activities

Some teachers prefer to have students view the slides and other visual assets in this unit directly instead of projecting them in class. Below is a web page to share with students with links to some of same items that are within in the teacher lesson plans, but without the explanatory text for the teacher.

 

• Student Links to Unit E1 Slides and Other Visuals

Original SciGen Unit

This unit has been adapted from "8.1 Potential and Kinetic Energy" in the Word Generation program led by Catherine Snow (Harvard University) through a SERP collaboration with the Boston Public Schools and other districts in Massachusetts and Maryland.

PDFs of that earlier unit's teacher and student editions are available at the Science Generation Download Center.

potential energy

noun – the energy an object has because of its relative position

What objects around you have potential energy?

kinetic energy

noun – the energy of motion

The kinetic energy of falling water can grind wheat into flour, saving human effort. Can you think of something else powered by kinetic energy?

friction

noun – the force slowing the motion of objects due to interactions along their surfaces

Do you think there is more friction with a steel wheel on a train track or with a rubber tire on asphalt?

momentum

noun – the quantity of motion of a moving body (mass x velocity)

How does a roller coaster’s momentum enable it to climb hills and complete loops?

velocity

noun – the speed in a certain direction

Explain a situation in which velocity changes even though speed stays constant.

acceleration

noun – the rate of change of velocity per unit of time

A roller coaster train accelerates as it descends. Why?

gravity

noun – a force that acts between all masses, pulling them together

Everything that has mass has a gravitational field. Why is Earth’s gravity the most obvious to us?

inertia

noun – the property of matter by which things continue their current motion (either going straight at the same speed or staying still), unless a force acts upon them

More massive things tend to have more inertia. Can you think of an example?