For this lesson, students are introduced to both potential energy and kinetic energy as forms of mechanical energy. A hands-on activity demonstrates how potential energy can change into kinetic energy by swinging a pendulum, illustrating the concept of conservation of energy. Students calculate the potential energy of the pendulum and predict how fast it will travel knowing that the potential energy will convert into kinetic energy. They verify their predictions by measuring the speed of the pendulum.

Concepts

engineering, kinetic energy, mechanical energy, potential energy, stem, energy

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Additional Tags

conservation of energy, integrated teaching and learning program and laboratory, teachengineering, pendulum, roller coaster

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Classroom Considerations

• Knovation Readability Score: 3 (1 low difficulty, 5 high difficulty)