Twelve cards ask 4th grade students to decide between energy of motion and stored energy. Students write each card, from a rolling bowling ball and a flying arrow to a drawn bow before release and water held behind a dam, in the kinetic or the potential column. Page 2 has three questions on the bow's energy, a book on a high shelf and an object at home that stores energy. It supports NGSS 4-PS3-1. The answer key is on page 3.
4-PS3-1
“Use evidence to construct an explanation relating the speed of an object to the energy of that object.”
Moving cards such as the moving car, the child running and the flying arrow go in the motion column, and question 1 follows the bow's energy into the arrow's speed.
Six moving examples and six stored-energy examples mixed in a grid, including a skier standing still at the top of a hill and a wound-up toy spring.
Two columns headed Kinetic (energy of motion) and Potential (stored energy), with eight dotted lines in each.
Three written questions beside a photo of an archer at full draw. They ask what happens to the bow's stored energy when the arrow is let go, which has more potential energy, a book on a high shelf or the same book on a low shelf, and for one object at home with stored energy.
The twelve cards in two lists, then answers to the three questions with examples such as a flashlight battery or a stretched hair tie.
The skier card
Pause on the skier standing still. Students often choose kinetic because skiing is fast, so ask what the skier is doing at that moment.
Hands up first
Read each card aloud and have students raise a hand for kinetic or potential before they write. Then compare with the page.
Home objects
Collect the answers to question 3 on the board and sort them as a class. Batteries and stretched things usually come up first.
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