What Is Energy? Short Demos
Three short, hands-on, in-class demos expand students' understanding of energy. First, using peanuts and heat, students see how the human body uses food to make energy. Then, students create paper snake mobiles to explore how heat energy can cause motion. Finally, students determine the effect that heat energy from the sun (or a lamp) has on temperature by placing pans of water in different locations.
What is energy?Copyright Wikimedia Commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/DancingFlames.jpg
Chemical engineers apply their understanding of how the human body gets energy and what foods give the most energy to create energy bars and drinks that maximize the energy athletes get from food. When designing heating and cooling systems, mechanical engineers study thermal energy and how it creates air movement. They know rising hot air mixes with the existing room air, preventing "cold" spots and making the space more comfortable; this is why they locate heating vents low on the floor. Civil and mechanical engineers have designed ways to harness renewable energy. Two such inventions are solar panels, which produce electricity from the sun, and solar hot water heaters, which absorb energy from the sun and transfer it to water for hot showers or laundry.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain that a light bulb generates heat.
- Explain that energy is produced in a reaction that takes place in the body.
- Describe how heat energy or solar energy is released, for example, by raising the temperature of the water in a pan that was exposed to this type of energy.
- Provide examples of how energy is used in our everyday lives.