Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Forms of Energy Lesson Plan.

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Forms of Energy, and supports this standard: construct arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE 

Ask students:

  • Where do you see examples of energy in our classroom? 
  • How does energy help us live and work?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

  • Read the description on the Forms of Energy topic page.
  • Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
  • Assign Related Reading. Have students read one of the four articles. Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Forms of Energy Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about forms of energy while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

  • Make-a-Movie: Create a movie that answers this question: Which forms of  energy are used each day in your school community?
  • Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying and defining the two main categories of energy. Provide an example of a potential-to-kinetic energy transfer. 
  • Creative Coding: Code a learning game challenging players to sort energy-related vocabulary terms into self-selected categories.

More to Explore

Energy Unit: Continue to build understanding around forms of energy with more BrainPOP topics.

Teacher Support Resources:

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments