Energy Flow Teacher Resources

The sun sends the earth 35,000 times the amount of energy required by all of us on the entire planet, every day. The fourth instructional activity in the 10-part series looks at how light energy from the sun transfers into thermal...

How do you plan to approach standard LS1C, Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms? Avoid information overload with helpful advice in a short video. Topics include energy sources, relationships between organisms, and...

Students explore energy and nutrient flow. In this science instructional activity, students diagram the flow of energy through food chains and food webs. Students discuss the importance of energy flow in Earth's ecosystems.

Here is a nifty worksheet on energy transfer. Physics fanatics analyze a diagram and state whether or not friction is involved. They sketch bar graphs and draw energy flow diagrams for each system as well. Circular motion, movement up...

Middle or high school environmental studies classes will learn much from this presentation on energy in ecosystems. It covers the foundational topics of trophic levels, food webs, and nutrient cycles using informational text and...

Every living thing requires a food source, thus the interconnections in ecosystems become complex. Scholars learn about these interconnections in a presentation on energy flow. It starts with the sun and moves through many different...

Budding scientists work collaboratively to reenact energy flow in a food chain. Scholars take on roles such as producer and consumer and perform tasks that symbolize energy flow in order to provide evidence of how much energy passes...

Is Earth's energy flow a little off balance? Explore our energy budget using a click-through interactive. Scholars discover the many factors that move solar energy around the planet and why the system is no longer in equilibrium.

How do plants and animals get their food? Learn about where energy comes from, how animals store energy, and aerobic respiration, in a lesson that allows scholars to diagram energy flows. 

When a minnow eats a piece of plastic, that garbage often tracks through multiple animals, causing harm to each as it passes through the food chain. Scholars learn about food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids with a presentation. It...

Emerging biochemists more fully understand the flow of energy in ecosystems as they explore the laws of thermodynamics and relate them to energy transfer in food chains. They also investigate heat loss from the human body and how...

How can you tell what an owl has eaten? Study the food chain and flow of energy in an ecosystem by dissecting an owl pellet and noting the bones found inside. Additionally, the lesson includes a game about consumers and producers with a...

Is the ice cooling down the water or is the water melting the ice? Here is a simulation that explores thermal energy transfer with iron, brick, and water. It demonstrates the flow of energy and what happens when each material is either...

Young scholars complete discussions and worksheets about the Hawaiian food chain. In this food chain lesson plan, students research decomposers, consumers, and producers.

Examine how heat can be transferred between systems by reconstructing a diagram on energy flow and solving problems on heat flow and work done.

Rhinozilla is Mia's bearded dragon and the focus of this lesson on energy flow in an ecosystem. She uses him to explain the energy pyramid, from producers through third level consumers, and she likens the food chain to a video game. Mia...

What is energy, anyway? Use this featurette as an introduction to your middle school energy unit. It successfully touches each of Earth's physical systems, the sun as our main source of energy, and the flow of energy through the food...

Does a tennis ball have energy? What about a bowling ball? Demonstrate concepts of different forms of energy forms and states with a variety of objects. Using the equations for potential and kinetic energy,...

Introduce your earth science enthusiasts to the earth's energy budget. Teach them using an informative set of slides that include illuminating lecturer's notes, relevant vocabulary, embedded animations, colorful satellite maps, and a...

The Next Generation Science Standards list matter and energy as the fifth concept. The video explains how these relate to flows, cycles, and conservation. It offers an understanding of the progression of skills from kindergarten through...

Even magicians can't make energy disappear. In a discussion-based instructional activity, young scientists learn about energy forms and conversions. They see how energy is neither created nor destroyed; it just changes forms. This is the...

Produce, consume, decompose...repeat! Examine how matter and energy cycles in ecosystems by watching a video discussing NGSS standard LS2B. The narrator explains the requirements of the standard at each grade level, plus gives tips to...