Playing with Energy

Preparation and points to note

This activity familiarises students with the terms kinetic energy* and potential energy in a fun way. To progress in the game, the students are required to solve simple problems based on kinetic energy contexts (for example, a radio broadcast, a rolling skateboard, or a boiling kettle). When any student encounters a kinetic card, all players should work out the problem and confirm the answer. (The answers are provided as a copymaster. You will need to decide who has the answer sheet for students to check against.)

Students need to be able to distinguish between potential and kinetic energy to play the game.  Before introducing it to your students, review the answers so that you can provide guidance if called upon.

Preferably, the students will play the game with a minimum of introduction but, if they are confused about what to do, walk them through a few turns.

All players start with their counters on the banana. They should discuss whether a banana is potential or kinetic energy. When each student starts, they collect 2 potential energy tokens (thanks to the banana being a potential energy square). They can then either trade in 2 tokens and end their turn on the petrol tank, trade in 1 token and end their turn on the wind (retaining 1 token), or stay on the banana and keep both tokens. In the next round, students on the petrol tank or the banana will collect 2 more tokens. Students on the wind (kinetic energy, because it is air in motion) don’t collect any tokens; they must pick up an energy card and try to solve the problem on it. If another student disputes their answer and it differs from that on the answer sheet (see copymaster), they lose their turn and stay on the wind square. On their next turn, they pick up another kinetic card and try to answer the question on it.

The game provides natural opportunity to mix up groups so that the students work with a diversity of
classmates. By being actively involved in a group with a common interest and focus, they are using and further developing the key competency participating and contributing.

Points of entry: Mathematics

There are two types of kinetic problem cards: rate conversions and number patterns.

The rate conversion problems require the students to convert from one unit to another closely related unit as in the Energy Stations problems on page 1. For example,

“Sefo burns 1 kilojoule per second playing soccer. Move forward 1 square for each minute he needs to burn 300 kilojoules.”

To solve this problem, students need to convert kilojoules per second (kJ/s) into kilojoules per minute (kJ/min) and calculate the number of minutes it will take to burn 300 kJ. If students are not sure how to approach a problem like this, prompt them to think about equivalent quantities: 60 seconds is the same as 1 minute, so 1 kJ/s is the same as 60 kJ/min. Similarly,

“A skier is travelling downhill at 30 kilometres per hour. Move forward 1 square for each kilometre he travels in 8 minutes.”

In this case, the conversion is from kilometres per hour to kilometres per minute: 30 km/h = 30 km/60 min = 1 km/2 min = 4 km/8 min. Once the hour has been converted to 60 minutes, doubling and halving type strategies are all that is needed.

The Richter scale problem, the ball rolling downhill, and other similar problems involve number patterns. Students may fi nd that it helps to put the given information into a table. For example, knowing that an earthquake that measures 2.0 on the Richter scale is 10 times as powerful as one that measures 1.0 or that an earthquake that measures 6.0 is 100 times as powerful as one that measures 4.0 is sufficient to identify the pattern in this table:

Similarly, the ball rolling downhill problem can be represented by and solved using this table:

Total distance is the distance travelled in the previous seconds plus the distance travelled in the current second.

Points of entry: Science

As the students work through the examples of energy listed on the copymaster, the aim should be for them to come up with their own everyday language definitions for potential and kinetic energy. The different examples should enable them to test and refine their definitions as they go.

As the students play the game, they may not always readily agree on whether a particular space represents potential or kinetic energy. Encourage them to debate the subject and justify their decisions. For example, the spinning wheel of a bike translates energy into forward momentum (kinetic), but a spinning flywheel mounted on a stationary block is also a source of stored (potential) energy.

Prompt students to think about how, in each situation, the energy could be changed from potential to kinetic or vice versa. For example, the coiled spring is potential energy, but when it expands, it converts its potential energy into motion (kinetic).

Answers

Game
The type of energy for each space

 Answers for energy game cards