Our Curious Classroom: Thoughtful Thinkers, Exploring Energy

Energy and persistence conquer all things.
-Benjamin Franklin

What a fantastic week we've had inquiring into the concept of energy!

We started by revisiting the marble track that we designed and created last week. Using the track, we explored two important types of energy: potential energy (the stored energy of the marble waiting at the top) and kinetic energy (the energy of the marble as it zooms down the track). It was impressive to see the children's thought process at play as they explained their reasoning behind why they designed the marble track the way they did.

Next, we moved on to some hands-on experiment stations—all about different forms of energy. At each station, students got to try out experiments that showed how energy can appear in many different ways. The children answered questions, wrote down their own questions, and made guesses about what form of energy they were observing. By the end of these stations, everyone brainstormed and named all the different forms of energy, from light and sound to thermal and mechanical energy.

Close to the end of the week, the opportunity to have a Thinker Thursday was too tempting to resist. I asked the children to answer a thought-provoking question posed by their classmate: "Where does energy come from?" One insightful student said energy is everywhere—it’s stored and always changing its form. It was wonderful to understand how the children think and perceive the world through these little thinking exercises that allow us to learn from each other.

Building on this idea, we experimented with a basketball. We observed what happens to the energy when the ball bounces on the ground. From this, the children created an energy transformation timeline showing how energy changes from one form to another during the bounce.

Finally, we did an energy transformation timeline activity where the kids thought of actions that start with potential energy and transform through different forms as the action unfolds. I challenged the class to come up with the longest chain of energy transformations they could imagine—and they rose to the challenge with some creative and thoughtful examples.