Lesson Overview:
Students will learn/understand how kinetic energy is used to make cars and vehicles move. Students will participate in an introduction activity (class brainstorm) of what they already know about energy. Students then will go through a teacher lead review about: what is energy, how it is used, and the types of energy. Lastly, students will apply what they know and learned about energy into an activity with Pull-Back Cars (view activity details below). After the activity, students will be left with the question: How would we program a robot into a car?
Materials provided by TeamBuggieDebug are attached to the bottom of the page. These materials consist of an optional power point that can be used for the teacher to refer to or display throughout lesson.
Learning Target:
- I can understand how energy is used and how it is used to make vehicles move
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| Learning Standards:
07: Use data to highlight or propose cause-and-effect relationships, predict outcomes, or communicate an idea. (P. 7.1) |
Do Now/Anticipatory Set/Progression of Learning:
- Introduction Activity:
- Class Word Bubble
- Ask the class- Where do we know that energy comes from?
- Record answers in a word bubble!
- This is the class opportunity to brainstorm what they know
- What is Energy?:
- Types of Energy
- Discussion Question: What are these types of energy used for?
- Kinetic
- Potential
- Mechanical
- Chemical
- Thermal
- How are these kinds of energy made?
- Examples
- Kinetic → movement
- Potential → sitting in a chair
- Chemical → eating
- Mechanical → batteries
- Pull-Back Car Activity:
- Introduction to Activity
- Transition Question- Ask the class: Did you know there is energy inside cars?
- Discuss:
- When the car moves it creates kinetic energy
- When the car isn’t moving it is creating potential energy
- When the car’s engine is running it creates mechanical energy
- When the car is burning gas chemical energy is created
- Have students use Pull-Back Cars on the following surfaces/inclines:
- Flat surface
- Up a hill
- Down a hill
- Have your students have the following observations between the 3 driving surfaces:
- What did you notice between the 3 driving surfaces? What similarities and differences between the 3 routes do you see?
- Did the car drive faster and slower on either of the surfaces? (Does it go faster uphill, downhill, or on a flat surface?)
- So What?
- Introduce a inquire (Intentionally a Cliff Hanger): How would we program a robot into a car?
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Success Criteria:
- Students are able to understand that energy is created inside of cars and can make observations that apply the information they learned to the Pull-Back Car activity
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Lesson Structure/Sequence:
- Introduction
- What is energy?
- Pull-Back Car Activity
- So What?
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Discipline-Specific Strategies and Scaffolds:
- Making connections to energy in our day-to-day lives
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Instructional Materials:
- Writing surface for Word Bubble (white board or poster paper)
- Lesson ppt or slides linked at bottom of the page
- Pull-back cars (1 per student)
- Cardboard and painters tape to create different driving surfaces for students
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| Inquiry Questions:
[View the Do Now/Anticipatory Set/Progression of Learning Above] |
Collaboration:
- Class discussions
- Create time for student socialization and collaboration of ideas
- Students can talk about their ideas
- Pull-Back Car Activity
- Students can work independently, in pairs or in groups while racing their cars
- Students can also work together in making their observations during the activity
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Reading/Writing:
- Class Word Bubble
- Student Observation from Activity
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Formative Assessment:
- Reviewing and observing class discussion of “Where we know energy comes from?”
- Reviewing student observations of class activity with Pull-Back Cars
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Lesson ppt or slides:
