Well we’ve delved right into our second (and my favorite!) unit for this first semester! As you may have recognized, energy is EVERYWHERE! From your favorite TV show, to the sports you play and the music you love, Energy finds itself right in the middle! We started our unit with the basic idea of the two types of energy: the energy of things that are in motion, KINETIC energy; and the energy of things that are not in motion, but rather stored, POTENTIAL energy. The second main idea we’ve learned is that Energy is not created, and it doesn’t just disappear, but rather, it is TRANSFERRED between objects around us all the time! The third idea we’ve studied is the idea that there are various FORMS of energy which we can describe such as: heat, light, sound, electrical, nuclear, electromagnetic, gravitational and mechanical. Each of these forms of energy can be described as POTENTIAL or KINETIC energy as well. For the rest of the unit, we will take a look at how the various forms of energy transfer energy at all times. To do this, we will abe doing several lab activities to help us understand the various forms of energy. We will wrap up our energy unit, by building two different wind turbines to see how electrical energy can be transferred from mechanical (or moving) wind turbines!
Wind Turbine!
UPDATE!!!
Be sure to check out the “Unit 2: Energy” on the right menu –> for some great resources relating to Energy and what we’ve been studying in class!