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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Maximizing Kinetic Energy: An Investigation Using Marbles

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Using marbles to construct a marble run, students will learn about projectile motion, kinetic energy, potential energy, final velocity, and forces.
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Drop and Pop Energy and Speed Exploration

For Students 4th
Fourth graders use a toy to make observations that speed is related to the amount of energy in an object as well as work with gravitational and elastic potential energy.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Pushing It Off a Cliff

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Lesson 2 moves into the Research and Revise step and focuses on the conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Students start out with a virtual laboratory, and then move into the notes and...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Move It!

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Mechanical energy is the most easily understood form of energy for students. When there is mechanical energy involved, something moves. Mechanical energy is a very important concept to understand. Engineers need to know what happens when...
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Lesson Plan
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Balloon Car

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students will design, build, and race balloon-powered cars in this fun lesson that teaches about engineering design and kinetic and potential energy.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Clean Energy: Hydropower

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Hydropower generation is introduced to students as a common purpose and benefit of constructing dams. Through an introduction to kinetic and potential energy, students come to understand how a dam creates electricity. They also learn the...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Is Energy?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
With an introduction to the ideas of energy, learners discuss specific types of energy and the practical sources of energy. Hands-on activities help them identify types of energy in their surroundings and enhance their understanding of...
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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Com Padre: Introduction to Work and Energy: The Hopper Popper Surprise

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity will provide students with a qualitative understanding of the Work-Energy Theorem, especially on how the energy transferred depends on the distance over which the force is applied.
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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Using Your Marbles: Making Energy Work for You

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity is based on the common experiment of running a marble down a ramp to do work on a cup. Learners will be able to see the relationship between mass and energy of the marble and the ramp height.
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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Exploring Energy Conservation With Rulers and Cars

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this lab, students will investigate the law of conservation of energy. The lab is designed as something of an open, hands-on assessment where students demonstrate how to maximize the conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy.
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Lesson Plan
The Tech Interactive

The Tech Museum of Innovation: Save the Hiker [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Can you build a device that will deliver life-saving treatment to someone in a hazardous situation? During this instructional activity, learners will learn how energy is converted and transferred between objects. Working in groups and...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Engineering in Sports

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Imagining themselves arriving at the Olympic gold medal soccer game in Beijing, students begin to think about how engineering is involved in sports. After a discussion of kinetic and potential energy, an associated hands-on activity...
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Lesson Plan
Discovery Education

Discovery Education: The Ultimate Roller Coaster Contest

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students design and build a three hill "tennis ball" roller coaster made of cardboard. During the design and building process, students explore the concepts of potential and kinetic energy and how they change as the roller coaster...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Work and Power: Waterwheel

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Investigating a waterwheel illustrates to students the physical properties of energy. They learn that the concept of work, force acting over a distance, differs from power, which is defined as force acting over a distance over some...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Physics of Roller Coasters

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students explore the physics utilized by engineers in designing today's roller coasters, including potential and kinetic energy, friction, and gravity. First, students learn that all true roller coasters are completely driven by the...
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Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Mn Step: Slow the Ball

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
For this experiment, students will design a track for a rolling ball to try to have the longest roll time possible. They will, in the process, apply their understanding of kinetic and potential energy, and acceleration and deceleration.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Collisions and Momentum: Bouncing Balls

For Teachers 7th - 9th
As a continuation of the theme of potential and kinetic energy, this instructional activity introduces the concepts of momentum, elastic and inelastic collisions. Many sports and games, such as baseball and ping-pong, illustrate the...
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Lesson Plan
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)

Smile: Potential Energy: How Is It Related to Kinetic Energy

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
After creating three different ramps with various heights, students will release toy cars from the tops of each ramp. Based on the elementary age level, students will collect data and analyze it.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: A River Ran Through It

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars learn how water is used to generate electricity. They investigate water's potential-to-kinetic energy transformation in hands-on activities about falling water and waterwheels. During the activities, they take...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center: Balancing Mobiles

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this lesson plan, students will apply mathematical, science, and engineering concepts to experiment with balancing levers. They will learn to classify types of levers to design and build a simplified mobile. Students will explore...
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Lesson Plan
NC State University

The Engineering Place: Roller Coasters [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
A lesson where young scholars construct a roller coaster and test it under different conditions to learn about force and motion.
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Lesson Plan
Science Buddies

Science Buddies: Teaching Engineering Design With an Egg Drop

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students build a device to protect an egg and prevent it from breaking when dropped.
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Scientific American: It's a Kid's World: Body Sense

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Investigate potential and kinetic energy by investigating the elasticity of a metal coil toy, the Slinky. Explore the development of muscle coordination in children and measure how practice improves performance of motor skills.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Motion Commotion

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Young scholars learn why and how motion occurs and what governs changes in motion, as described by Newton's three laws of motion. They gain hands-on experience with the concepts of forces, changes in motion, and action and reaction. In...

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