We started out taking notes on what we've learned thus far about energy. The main point that I was trying to make in our notes was that energy is conserved - meaning that energy is neither created nor destroyed.
- First I took a racquetball and had students identify the form of energy as I held it.
- Then I had the students identify the form of energy as it fell.
- Then I caught the ball at the peak of its return - then had them notice something.
- But before I had them respond, I immediately jumped into creating a position over time graph and had students create one in their journal as well.
- I then then informed them that I was going to drop the ball two times. The first time I wanted them to just simply watch. After the second time, they were told to graph the position of the ball over time as it bounced 5 times.
- I then had the students graph it, and a member of their table drew their graph on the back of the room boards.
- After a discussion, I had students make some observations in their books concerning the ball falling and the amount of energy within the system.
- I prompted them that this should be posing a problem with the notes we took. I then challenged them to see if they could figure it out. The problem is that the energy appears to not be conserved.
- Problem identified:
- If energy is conserved, why then did the ball not return back to its original position?
- Where did the energy go?
- If energy is about moving things, what form did this energy take? What does it look like?
- Are there other forms of energy?
- If energy is conserved, why then did the ball not return back to its original position?
- I then had students take the racquet balls and play with them for over 5 minutes to investigate where the energy went and what form did this energy leave the system. In other words, what does this energy look like? What's moving?
- We then posted the answers to the questions on the back boards and discussed it as a class.
- If we had time, students then drew a model of what is occurring with this energy transfer conundrum, and explained it below.
- In addition - students proposed a way to investigate their idea's a little further.