Skip Navigation

Energy Types: List-Group-Label

Time Frame

1 class periods of 30 minutes each

Group Size

Small Groups

Authors

Utah LessonPlans

Summary

Students will generate a list of types of energy and then group them. The teacher will guide the discussion to eventually label all properties as either potential or kinetic.


Materials

Attachments

  • blank note cards
  • word list for cards (attached) (optional)
  • overhead projector or document camera (optional)


Instructional Procedures

  1. Ask students to think about all the things they know of that have energy. You can write their responses on the board or overhead or you can have students write the properties on index cards (one per card). A set of pre-made cards is printed below if you wish to shorten the length of this activity.
  2. Once the list of types of energy has been generated, ask students to group them. Discuss what characteristics might be used to create groups. Do not label the groups yet.
  3. Give students an opportunity to categorize each of the types of energy that were listed. If they have index cards, they can work in a group and move the cards around.
  4. Clarify the characteristics of each group and give students the definition (or have them look it up in their books) ex:
    • Potential
    • Kinetic
  5. Ask students to put all the types of energy into these two groups. Have a group share what they get and discuss with the class whether they are right or wrong. The textbook could also be used to have students check their work.
  6. If a written assignment is desired, have students write definitions for each property and list the properties based on potential or kinetic.
  7. This activity can be adapted to any classification activity. In the 8th grade core chemical and physical changes and rocks and minerals would work well with this format.


Bibliography

Lesson Design by Jordan School District Teachers and Staff.


Created: 10/30/2014
Updated: 02/04/2018
1614
/>