FLEET Schools: Forces and Energy

This unit covers:

• What is energy
• Different forms of energy
• Conservation/transfer of energy
• Generation of electricity
• Critical thinking about the human use of electricity, its implications and the role of the scientists and society

Curriculum links

The resource content and activities are linked to the Victorian and Australian curriculum. See the following curriculum codes:

Year 4

ACSSU076 (investigating the effect of forces on the behaviour of an object through actions such as throwing, dropping, bouncing and rolling

Yr 8

ACSSU155 (recognizing that kinetic energy is the energy possessed by moving bodies; recognising that potential energy is stored energy, such as gravitational, chemical and elastic energy; investigating different forms of energy in terms of the effects they cause, such as gravitational potential causing objects to fall and heat energy transferred between materials that have a different temperature; using flow diagrams to illustrate changes between different forms of energy)

ACSHE136 (considering how engineers improve energy efficiency of a range of processes; investigating how scientists have created new materials such as synthetic fibres, heat-resistant plastics and pharmaceuticals)

Yr 9

ACSSU182 (investigating factors that affect the transfer of energy through an electric circuit)

Yr 10

ACSSU190 (recognizing that the Law of Conservation of Energy explains that total energy is maintained in energy transfer and transformation; recognising that in energy transfer and transformation, a variety of processes can occur, so that the usable energy is reduced and the system is not 100% efficient; using models to describe how energy is transferred and transformed within systems)

ACSSU229 (recognizing that a stationary object, or a moving object with constant motion, has balanced forces acting on it; using Newton’s Second Law to predict how a force affects the movement of an object; recognising and applying Newton’s Third Law to describe the effect of interactions between two objects)

FLEET researchers employ our understanding of energy to help develop atomically thin materials and electronic circuits for the next generation of energy-efficient electronics. The motivation for FLEET’s research, outlined in the next section, is an important discussion for students to consider and it provides context for some of the experiments and critical thinking activities.

Learning outcomes

Students will understand the concept of energy and why it is crucial to our understanding of how everything in the universe works – from sub-atomic particles to the sun, galaxies, your mobile phone and the universe itself. Students will be able to think critically about their own and society’s use of energy and about the concept of sustainable energy.

The broad learning components are outlined below

• What is energy and how we measure it
• An understanding of
  • Potential and kinetic energy and their various forms
  • The relationship between energy and work
  • Transfer of energy / conservation of energy and why this is the key to understanding energy
• How to apply a little bit of Newton’s 2^nd and 3^rd laws
• An understanding of electrical energy
• How energy works at the quantum level
• Energy in society

Click on the buttons below to take you to one of the following four resource components, a Powerpoint peresentation to accompany the activities or learning in the components, or download the whole resource as a pdf:

List of activities

The Activities are introduced and can be downloaded at the appropriate points in the content of the resource, but we have listed all of them here as well

List of all activities

1. What is energy  Students get to think critically about the nature of energy by asking questions and, by working in small groups, start to challenge their own and others’ perceptions of what energy is.
2. Energy and work  Students begin to think more deeply about the concept of energy and work and how we quantify it.
3. Balloon rockets  Make a rocket with just a balloon, string, straws and sticky tape. See how far and how high you can go. Test Newtons 2^nd and 3^rd laws.
4. Potential energy Learn what potential energy is and how to calculate how much potential energy something has – and how much potential work you can do with that energy.
5. Kinetic energy  Learn what kinetic energy is and the mathematical relationships that describe it.
6. Double bounce  Students can visualize potential (gravitational) energy and kinetic energy and how one form is transferred to the other to affect change. Caution: involves high bouncy balls
7. Catapults  Make a simple catapult that can fire small items across rooms. Students can invent games to play and experiment with their catapults and test their understanding of potential and kinetic energy. More warnings concerning flying projectiles.
8. Energy transfer How far does chocolate get you?  For Year 9-10 students: Students will learn that for energy to do work it needs to transform from one form to another and this is what we can measure and use to predict the behaviour of a system. It can involve chocolate, should students want to test the math.
9. Thinking critically about digital technologies  Students will think critically about how society uses energy, the problems we face in trying to achieve sustainable energy use and construct logical arguments to support what they perceive are acceptable means to achieve it.
10. Quantum energy: Mass, energy and the oscillating ruler  Understand the relationship between mass and energy and how this helps us understand how the world works and crucially advance our understanding of quantum mechanics and the development of the technologies that come from that.

Next section: Energy and work

All FLEET Schools’ activities and web content are licensed under CCBY 4.0: This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator, Centre of Excellence for Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies

Go to: Energy and work. Or back to FLEET Schools or Education and Outreach