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Science Launch G4 / Week 04 / Monday
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Week 04 · Energy Converter

Monday

Energy changes form
// Design a device that changes energy
⏱ about 15 min

Monday: Energy changes form

Rocket finds an old wind-up penguin in a box of toys. He twists the key on its back. Click, click, click.

He sets it down and the penguin waddles across the table, flapping its tiny flippers.

"Where did the waddle come from?" Rocket asks. "It has no batteries!"

Raven turns the key slowly. "I feel something tightening inside. What do you notice when you wind it?"

Nova scans the toy. "Interesting," she says. "Your twisting went in. Then something came out. Was it the same kind of energy?"

Energy can change from one form to another

Energy is never made from nothing, and it never just disappears.

When we use energy, it changes from one form into another. To change form is to convert.

Winding the penguin stores energy in a spring. When the spring unwinds, that stored energy converts into motion.

Device or thingEnergy goes in asEnergy comes out as
Wind-up toystored energy in a springmotion
Solar celllight from the Sunelectricity
Car enginestored energy in fuelmotion
Your bodystored energy in foodmoving, breathing and thinking
A solar cell converts sunlight into ____.
Your body converts the energy in food so you can ____.
ENERGY DETECTIVE
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Does the wind-up penguin make energy from nothing?
Try it
Rub your hands together fast for ten seconds.
What did your motion convert into?

Trace the energy

Scientists trace energy like a path. They ask where it starts and where it ends up.

Example: Rocket twists the key. His motion goes into the spring as stored energy.

The spring unwinds. The stored energy converts into the penguin's waddle.

So the path is: Rocket's motion, then stored energy, then the toy's motion.

ENERGY IN, ENERGY OUT
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
A car engine burns fuel and the car moves. What form does the energy come out as?
A solar cell sits in the sunshine. What energy goes in?
Your body uses food. What form is the energy in food?
THE WIND-UP PENGUIN'S ENERGY PATH
  • ?The spring unwinds.
  • ?Energy is stored in the spring.
  • ?The penguin waddles.
  • ?Rocket twists the key.
  • ?Rocket sets the penguin down.
WHY THIS EXERCISEMotion went in as stored energy and came out as motion again.
StatementTrue or false?
Energy can change from one form to another.?
A wind-up toy needs batteries to move.?
To convert means to change form.?
Energy can be made from nothing.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEEnergy converts from one form to another. It is never made from nothing.
Energy is never made from nothing. It only changes ____. Type one word.
WHY THIS EXERCISEEnergy converts from one form to another.
StatementTrue or false?
A solar cell converts light into electricity.?
Food stores energy.?
A car engine turns motion into fuel.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEEngines convert the stored energy in fuel into motion.

Great work! Tomorrow we look closely at stored energy, the kind engineers love to use.