Naming types of energy

Activities to try

1. 1

   Tap-and-name a busy familiar scene

   Why it works: Each everyday energy word names something you can point to in a real scene, and a hidden meaning + example + non-example fences exactly what each word does and does not cover.

   1. Look at a rich familiar scene (kitchen or playground) containing taggable energy sources: a ball flying, a battery in a remote, a torch shining, a drum sounding, a steaming kettle or hot drink, a stretched spring, a wind-up toy.
   2. Point to each object and say its energy word, a one-line kid-friendly meaning, and a matching everyday example (moving ball = movement/kinetic; battery or food = chemical store; torch = light; drum = sound; hot drink or kettle = thermal; stretched spring = elastic; ball on a high shelf = raised/gravitational store).
   3. For each object answer 'is this energy waiting, or on the move?' and then say the fuller sentence, e.g. 'The battery STORES chemical energy; when the torch is on, that energy is on the MOVE as light.'
   4. Use the non-examples too: a still ball has no movement energy; a switched-off torch gives no light.
2. 2

   Sort the scene: STORED / waiting vs ON THE MOVE

   Why it works: Some energy is stored and waiting in things that can be completely still (including the thermal energy of a hot drink), movement is energy an object has while it is doing something, and light, sound, heat flowing from hotter to cooler things and electric current are energy on the move being transferred from one place to another — energy 'moves from here to there' rather than turning into a different substance.

   1. Take every energy word from the scene and place it in one of two columns: 'STORED / waiting (or doing)' or 'ON THE MOVE / being transferred'.
   2. Put chemical (battery, food), elastic (stretched or wound spring), a raised object (ball on a high shelf) and the thermal energy of a hot drink into STORED because the energy waits there even when nothing moves; put the moving ball's movement/kinetic energy there too, as energy an object has while it is doing something; put light, sound, heat flowing out from a hot thing to cooler surroundings, and electric current into ON THE MOVE.
   3. After sorting the whole scene, say what pattern you notice — light, sound, heat flowing out of hot things and electric current tend to land in 'on the move', while chemical, elastic, gravitational, thermal (in a hot thing) and movement sit in 'stored or doing'.
   4. Say two sentences for one device: a labelling sentence ('A moving ball has ___ energy') and a transfer sentence ('The battery stores chemical energy and transfers it to the torch as light').
3. 3

   Watch the energy move through a device

   Why it works: Dynamic words like 'transfer' and 'kinetic' name something you can watch happen: stored energy being transferred so an object starts moving, and energy travelling out of a device, so the words describe a process not just a label.

   1. Watch or act out one device from start to end: wind up a toy and release it, or switch on a torch, keeping attention on where the energy starts and where it goes.
   2. For the wind-up toy: say that winding stores elastic energy in the spring; releasing transfers that stored energy to the toy so it now has movement (kinetic) energy; all the while, rubbing in the gears and between the wheels and floor, and pushing through the air, transfers energy away to the surroundings as heat (and a little sound); once the spring has unwound, nothing keeps refilling the movement energy, so the toy slows and stops.
   3. For the torch: say the battery stores chemical energy; when switched on, that energy is on the move along the wire and leaves the torch mostly as light, with some as heat (the bulb gets warm).
   4. Mark out loud the 'store' and the 'on the move' moment for each device, keeping it qualitative with no numbers.