Potentially Kinetic

Keep Program, University of Wisconsin

This activity supports sense-making around kinetic and potential energy through a series of demonstrations.

This activity takes two 50 minute class periods

This Activity builds on the following concepts of Energy Literacy.

Click a topic below for supporting information, teaching ideas, and sample activities.

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This is an activity to embed within a larger lesson or module.
Review the contents to decide how to embed it and how to develop questions that will foster deeper thinking about energy transformations.
This lesson plan is very well thought out and walks teachers through the activity.

Through simple demonstrations, students are introduced to the presence of potential and kinetic energy in their lives and test their knowledge through a tic-tac-toe game.
Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.

The learning objectives, materials, background materials are clear, as are the procedures for the lesson.
The lesson itself is a pdf, but there are links to further explorations, and it includes assessment questions.
This activity is appropriate for middle school students learning about kinetic and potential energy, and given the active nature of it, this activity should appeal to different learning styles.
The fun tic-tac-toe game recommended for after the activity should serve as a formative assessment teachers can use to monitor student learning.
The subject areas that it covers include English, Arts, Math, and Science.

Entered the Collection: November 2021 Last Reviewed: July 2021