Energy Unit Calendar Part I: What is Energy?

Day One – Poster Making: What is energy? What are some of the
different forms of energy sources? (55 minutes)
Purpose: Students will gain an understanding of what energy is. They will
explore the different types of energy, including; biomass, coal, geothermal energy,
hydropower, natural gas, petroleum, propane, solar energy, uranium, wind, and
electricity.
• Whole Class Discussion
o Discuss with students what they know about energy. Read
pages 6-7 of Elementary Energy Info Book together.
• Break students into groups of two- three to read their assigned
topic from pages 10-33 of Elementary Energy Info Book.
o Each group should focus on a different kind of energy.
o Save uranium and electricity for more advanced students.
o Go over rubric, supplies, and give students work time. All
students must participate to create a visually appealing
informative depiction of their energy source.

Objectives: 1

Day Two – Poster Making Continued: What are some of the different
energy sources? (55 minutes)
Purpose: To gain familiarity with different sources of energy and cooperate in
group work.
• Poster making
o Break students into groups of two or three. Each group
should focus on a different kind of energy.
o Save uranium and electricity for more advanced students.
o Hand out rubric, supplies, and give students work time. All
students must participate to create a visually appealing
informative depiction of their energy source.

Objectives: 1

Day Three – Presentations of Different Energy Sources (50 minutes)

Purpose: To gain familiarity with different sources of energy.
• Students will present their energy source to the class. Each group
member will be expected to take part in the presentation.
o Students will take notes on the What are the Different
Kinds of Energy worksheet during presentations.
 Objectives: 1, 6

HEAT
Day Four – Thermometer 1 and Exploring Heat 1 Experiment (40
minutes)
Purpose: To gain familiarity with a thermometer and to explore heat using water.
• Class discussion on Thermometer 1. Have students fill in page 13
of the Energy Works Student Guide.
• Do Exploring Heat 1 experiment as a class. Have students fill in
page 14 of the Energy Works Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Computers: Walk students through a PowerPoint tutorial before computers on main t.v.
screen. Give directions for the project. Show them how to insert slides, select layouts,
insert pictures and text, transitions, etc. Ask students to make a title slide including, a
title, a picture, and their name. Ask them to make one additional slide identifying what
energy is.

Objectives: 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15

Day Five – Exploring Heat Experiments 2 and 3-Instructional Cycle

(50 minutes)
Purpose: To explore heat using water.
• As a class students will read pages 4 and 5 of Energy Works
Student Guide. Discuss any questions.
• Centers: Students will perform Exploring Heat Experiments 2 and
3 in groups of 4. Students will remain at each station for 15
minutes.
o Students will complete pages 15 and 16 in the Energy
Works Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15

Day Six – Exploring Heat Experiments 4 and 5 (50 minutes)

Purpose: To explore how heat moves by conduction and to explore conductors
and insulators.
• As a class students will read pages 6 and 7 of Energy Works
Student Guide. Discuss any questions.
• Centers: Students will perform Exploring Heat Experiments 4
 and 5 in groups of 4. Students will remain at each station for 15
minutes.
o Students will complete pages 17 and 18 in Energy
Works Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 17

Day Seven –Exploring Heat Experiment 6 and 7 (50 minutes)

Purpose: To explore convection in a liquid and to explore absorption of light
energy.
• As a class read pages 8-10 of Energy Works Student Guide.
Discuss any questions.
• Explain Exploring Heat Experiment 7 and get it started.
• Model Exploring Heat Experiment 6. Students will work on this
for 15 minutes in groups of 4.
o Students will complete pages 19 and 20 in Energy
Works Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 2, 3, 8, 12

LIGHT

Day Eight – Exploring Light 1 (40 minutes)

Purpose: To explore light waves and shadows.
• As a class read pages 22 and 23 of Energy Works Student Guide.
Discuss any questions.
• Demonstrate at the front of the class Exploring Light 1
o Have students do page 31 along with you as you
demonstrate.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Computers: Continue PowerPoint project. Students will work on their heat slides today.
Each student must make at least one slide containing two things that they learned, a
picture, and a transition. Students can go to the math arcade if they finish early.

Objectives: 5, 9, 12

Day Nine – Exploring Light 2, 3 & 4 (55 minutes)

Purpose: To explore refraction using a spectroscope, water, and a convex lens.
 • As a class read pages 24 and 25 of Energy Works Student Guide.
Discuss any questions.
• Centers: Students will perform Exploring Light Experiments 2, 3,
and 4 in groups of 4. Students will remain at each station for 10
minutes.
o Students will complete pages 32, 33, and 34 of Energy
Works Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 6, 8, 12, 16

Day Ten – Exploring Light 8 (45 minutes)

Purpose: To explore how the energy in light is changed into heat.
• As a class read pages 26 and 27 of Energy Works Student Guide.
Discuss any questions.
• Students will perform Exploring Light Experiment 8 in groups of 3
to 4.
o Students will complete page 40 in their Energy Works
Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13,

MOTION

Day Eleven – Exploring Motion 1 and 2 (55 minutes)

Purpose: To explore potential gravitational energy as well as graphing and
analyzing data.
• As a class read pages 41 and 42 of Energy Works Student Guide.
Discuss any questions.
• Students will perform Exploring Motion Experiments 1 and 2 in
groups of 4. They will first perform the experiment and then graph
the results. Students will remain at each station for 10 minutes.
o Students will complete pages 48 and 49 of Energy Works
Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 18

Day Twelve – Exploring Motion 5 (40 minutes)

Purpose: To explore friction.
 • As a class read pages 43-44 of Energy Works Student Guide.
Discuss any questions.
• In groups of 4, students will do Exploring Motion 5.
o Students will complete page 52 of Energy Works Student
Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Computers: Continue PowerPoint project. Students will work on their light slides today.
Each student must make at least one slide containing two things that they learned, a
picture, and a transition.

Objectives: 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12

Day Thirteen – Spring Scale and Exploring Motion 7

Purpose: To gain familiarity with a spring scale and to explore inertia and friction.
• As a class we will first read page 47 of Energy Works Student
Guide to learn how to use a spring scale.
• Next groups of 4 students will perform Exploring Motion 7.
o Students will complete page 54 of Energy Works Student
Guide.
• Discuss conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12

SOUND

Day Fourteen – Sound (50 minutes)

Purpose: To familiarize students with sound as a form of energy.
• Students will read pages 59-62 in Energy Works Student Guide.
o Students will complete page 63 of Energy Works Student
Guide.

Objectives: 1, 8

Energy Unit Calendar Part II: Saving Energy

Day Fifteen – Saving Energy (45 minutes)
Purpose: Students will gain familiarity with the history of energy, how is energy
 used in school and at home, and tips for conserving energy.
• Read and discuss pages 2-8 of Saving Energy: Building Buddies
as a class.
• Students will work on energy timeline on page 9 of Saving
Energy: Building Buddies individually.

Objectives: 1, 10, 11

Day Sixteen – Energy Saving Jigsaw (40 minutes)

Purpose: To learn more ways to conserve energy.
• Break the class into 5 separate groups of approximately 5 students
each. Each group will have a specialty area. The areas include:
water heating, lighting, appliances, heating and cooling, and
sectors of the economy. Each group will be given an excerpt of
reading from pages 3-8 of Saving Energy: Monitoring and
Mentoring and a worksheet to take notes on from pages 9- 13.
o Give students approximately 20-25 minutes in groups to
work together and pick out the important information from
reading.
o Next, split the class (have these lists ahead of time) into
new groups of different specialists.
o Informal Assessment: Give each student a worksheet
where they will be required to state one fact that they
learned from each specialist.
• Homework: Students have an energy survey to fill out with their
parents from page 15 of Monitoring and Mentoring and on the
back page 15 of Building Buddies.

Computers: Continue PowerPoint project. Students will work on their sound and motion
slides today. Each student must make at least one slide containing two things that they
learned, a picture, and a transition for sound and motion.

Objectives: 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11,

Day Seventeen – Reading Electric & Natural Gas Meters (50

minutes)
Purpose: Students will learn how to read electric and natural gas meters, how electricity
and natural gas are measured, and how to determine the cost of electricity and natural
gas.
• Go over homework from day 16 to discuss what students found out
about energy use in their own homes.
• Read page 19 of Monitoring and Mentoring on how to read an
 electric meter.
• Do pages 19- 24. Demonstrate at document camera first. When
students get the hang of it let them work individually or in pairs.
Check as a class when complete.
o Ask students why it may be useful to be able to read
electric meters?

Objectives: 2, 3

Day Eighteen – Insulation Investigation (40 minutes) **need

insulating materials
Purpose: To investigate the insulating properties of different materials.
• Review with students what insulation is and why it is important/
useful.
• Break students into groups where each group will have a different
type of insulation material to use (at least 5 groups).
• Do experiment and have students fill out page 25 on Monitoring
and Mentoring: Student Guide.
• Discuss results and conclusions as a class.

Objectives: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10

Day Nineteen – Reading Electric Nameplates (55 minutes)

Purpose: To gain familiarity with reading electric nameplates and determining the cost of
running machines.
• As a class do pages 26 and 28 of Monitoring and Mentoring:
Student Guide. Ask students why reading electric nameplates are
useful (they can determine how much it costs for the machine to
run).
• Homework: Assign page 28 of Monitoring and Mentoring:
Student Guide.

Objectives: 2, 3

Day Twenty – Kill A Watt Monitor(40 minutes)

Purpose: To teach students how to use a Kill A Watt Monitor to measure and
monitor the electronic consumption of electrical machines and devices.
• As a class read page 32 in Monitoring and Mentoring: Student
Guide to learn how to use a Kill A Watt Monitor.
• Do Kill A Watt 1 experiment on page 33 of Monitoring and
Mentoring: Student Guide to determine the power usage of
 different appliances in the classroom.

Computers: Students will create a comic strip at

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/ that has to do with saving energy.
Students will be expected to have at least one panel and the comic must have to be about
saving energy. **see extended lesson plans

Objectives: 2, 3, 10

Day Twenty one – Facts of Light (40 minutes)

Purpose: To investigate the differences in Incandescent and CFL lights.
• Read page 36 in Monitoring and Mentoring: Student Guide with
students to learn about the two different kinds of lightbulbs.
• Do page 37 in Monitoring and Mentoring: Student Guide to
determine which lightbulb is more efficient and cost effective.

Objectives: 1, 5, 10

Day Twenty two – Lightbulb Investigation 1 & 2 (55 minutes)

Purpose: To compare the heat output and wattage of an incandescent to a compact
fluorescent lightbulb.
• As a class do Lightbulb Investigation 1 and 2 in Monitoring and
Mentoring: Student Guide on page 38 and 39. Have students come
up and take the temperature measurements.
• Discuss conclusions
• Read page 40 in Monitoring and Mentoring: Student Guide on the
light meter to set up for day 23. Explain how students will do page
42.

Objectives: 2, 3, 5, 8, 10,

Day Twenty three – Light Level Investigation (30 minutes)

Purpose: To practice using the light meter by investigating the light levels of the
classroom, the hallway and outside areas in different conditions.
• During the day pairs of students will go with an adult to different
rooms in the school and record the light level on page 42 in
Monitoring and Mentoring: Student Guide.
• During science we will look at students’ results and compare them
to the recommended light levels on page 43 in Monitoring and
Mentoring: Student Guide.
• Discuss conclusions.
 Objectives: 2, 3, 6, 10, 11

Day Twenty four – Reading and Comparing Energy Guide Labels (40
minutes)
Purpose: To practice reading and comparing energy guide labels.
• Read and do pages 45-47 in Monitoring and Mentoring: Student
Guide with students to learn how to read energy guides and how
they can help us buy cost efficient items.
• Homework: Give students 1 week to go to the store or look
online at energy guide labels for washing machines. Give them a
worksheet similar to page 47 where they have to calculate how
much the washing machine will cost for the year and which
washing machine is the most cost efficient after 7 years. Tell
students that it is a little competition to see who can find the most
cost efficient washing machine.

Computers: Energy Website continued.

Objectives: 1, 5, 6, 10, 11

Day Twenty five – Recommendations (55 minutes)

Purpose: To give students an opportunity to use what they have learned to create a
school wide energy plan.
• School Survey on page 48 and 49 of Monitoring and Mentoring
• Page 53 and 54 of Monitoring and Mentoring
• Final recommendations- Have each group pick 10 of the most
important energy saving tips that they have learned and include
them on a poster.
• Have the principal, and other school personnel come down for
presentations then hang posters in the hall.

Objectives: 1,8, 10, 11