Sea Lions Are Physicists!
/The Sea Lions became physicists this week as they began a new unit of study all about energy. Using their science journals to record ideas, they asked: “What is energy, and what has energy?” The classroom was a buzz of energy as the Sea Lions performed some pretty exciting and fun experiments. To explore the big questions about energy, Sea Lions conducted experiments and puzzled over their results with their science partner - in the end, discovering everything has energy!
Sea Lions learned scientists divide nearly all types of energy into just two basic groups: potential energy and kinetic energy. We talked about definitions for each type of energy and went back to the experiment results to identify what types of energy we had observed. These findings were then recorded in Sea Lions’ science journals.
Later in the week, we performed additional experiments which helped us understand how scientists calculate Gravitational Potential Energy as well as Kinetic Energy. Sea Lion physicists explored mass, gravity and height as they conducted experiments using a stack of books, a ruler, ½ a paper cup and marbles. We discovered the Potential Gravitational Energy of an object is related to the mass, gravity and height of an object from the earth (or relative height between two surfaces).
We pushed even further, measuring the kinetic energy of objects. We used rulers and marbles of different masses to measure the speed (velocity) of an object in relation to its kinetic energy. We discovered the kinetic energy of an object is directly related to its mass and velocity.
The Sea Lions spent a good portion of the week discussing examples of potential and kinetic energy they experienced around them every day. What fun!
