How the World Works

Central Idea: Energy can be stored and converted in different ways

Form: Different types of energy

Change: How energy is stored and transferred

Function: The law of conservation of energy

Welcome to the second half of the first semester! Now that we have gotten used to grade 4, new rules, new expectations, and new friends, we are ready to really dive in! Our second unit during this year is very different from our first unit, as it is all about science!

During this unit we focused on a few specific skills - observation, analysis, and research. Each of our activities required us to use one or all of these skills. These are skills that we will be using a LOT in the coming year, so it is really important that we develop them early on.

To develop them we did a number of different activities - we researched things, we did presentations, we did experiments, talked, watched, read...all the things that school is all about!

Researching:

Group Presentations

One of our extra cool thing we did was not just present about a type of energy, but research and demonstrate an experiment that uses that type of energy, so our friends could really understand it!

After our initial research and experimentation, it was time to really use our observation and analysis skills. We spent a few days doing various activities to better understand how energy is stored, transferred, and conserved.

Once we had researched about energy, how it transfers, how it's conserved, and how it works, it was time to put our skills to use...by building a simple circuit! This is a very important step in helping us be ready to complete our summative assessment, but it is also one of the most difficult. Still, in the end, we all had success!

Finally, after all our hold work learning, observing, analyzing and researching, we were ready to create our own city, powered by all the types of energy we could!