Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 07 — Energy Moves: Heat, Sound, Light

Learners trace energy as it moves from a source to a receiver, never vanishing. They feel heat move from a warm stone to a cool one, hear sound move from a drum to an ear, and see light move from a lamp to a surface. Each time the energy changes place or form but is not destroyed — it goes somewhere, doing something. Learners record source, what moves, and receiver for three transfers.

D06 P3: Intellectual & Cognitive Awareness D06.S3 55 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

How does energy move from one place or object to another, and why is it never destroyed?

energyheatsoundlighttransfermovesourcereceiver

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

Three panels showing energy moving — a hand warming over a flame with an arrow labeled heat, a drum with sound waves reaching an ear labeled sound, and a lamp with light rays reaching a book labeled light
Three panels showing energy moving — a hand warming over a flame with an arrow labeled heat, a drum with sound waves reaching an ear labeled sound, and a lamp with light rays reaching a book labeled light

Lesson 7 — Energy Moves: Heat, Sound, Light

Summary

Energy is the ability to make things happen, and it never simply disappears. Learners trace three kinds of energy — heat, sound, and light — as each moves from a source to a receiver. A warm stone passes heat to a cool one; a drum sends sound to an ear; a lamp sends light to a page. In every case the energy goes somewhere and does something: it is never destroyed, only moved or changed. Learners record the source, what moves, and the receiver for three transfers they find themselves.

Objectives

  • Describe how energy moves from one place or object to another (such as heat, sound, and light) and is never destroyed. (D06.S3.04.01)

Connection

Touch a cup that has been sitting in the sun. Warm, isn’t it? That warmth is energy that traveled as light from the Sun, landed on the cup, and became heat. Clap your hands and hear the sound travel through the air to your ear. Shine a light on a wall and watch the light leave the lamp and land on the wall. Energy is always moving from one place to another — from the fire to the pot, from the drum to your ear, from the Sun to the Earth — and it is never destroyed. It only changes place or form, which is why a sunny window, a ringing bell, and a warm fire are all the same story: energy on the move.

Materials

  • A small drum or tin and a drumstick
  • A flashlight or a lamp
  • A warm object and a cool object (a warmed stone and a cool one)
  • Paper and pencils

Preparation

  • Warm one stone in the sun or in warm (not hot) water, and keep a second stone cool.
  • Set out the drum, flashlight, and stones where learners can safely touch and use them.
  • Prepare a record space: Source | What moves | Receiver.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). Teach the transfer idea with a worked example — model one transfer (“the lamp is the source, light moves, the wall is the receiver”) — then let learners find their own transfers (guided practice) before recording independently. The key science to protect: energy is never destroyed; when it seems to “disappear” (the sound fades, the stone cools), it has only spread out into the surroundings (the conservation-of-energy idea, held simply and honestly — evidence, not dogma). Keep the technology and environment lenses alive: every light, machine, and fire we use is energy on the move, and that is why we care where our energy comes from and where it goes. Keep hands safe — warm, never scalding. Invite wonder alongside fact: energy’s endless journey is something scientists describe from centuries of careful measurement, and it is also a thing to marvel at.

Procedure

  1. Gather and remember (5 min). Last year you met solids, liquids, and gases, and how heating and cooling change them. Today: what is that warmth, and where does it go?
  2. Meet energy (10 min). Energy is what makes things happen — it warms, it makes sound, it lights. It moves from a source (where it starts) to a receiver (where it lands). Say the three kinds: heat, sound, light.
  3. Trace three transfers (20 min). First, hold the warm stone near the cool one — feel the heat move from warm to cool. Next, tap the drum — hear the sound travel to your ear. Last, shine the flashlight — see the light land on the wall. Each time, say the source, what moves, and the receiver.
  4. Record your own (15 min). Find three energy transfers around you — a lamp, a voice, warm hands, the Sun through a window. For each, write the source, what moves, and the receiver.
  5. Close (5 min). Energy is never destroyed. When it seems to vanish, it has only spread out. Tomorrow you will build a path for one kind of energy — electricity — to move along.

Differentiation

  • Support: Trace one transfer (light from lamp to wall) with a partner and say the source and receiver.
  • Support (non-speaking): Point to the source and the receiver of a transfer; a partner names what moves.
  • Support (blind/low-vision): Feel heat move from a warm stone to a cool one and hear sound travel; describe each transfer aloud.
  • Extension: Explain in one sentence where the energy “goes” when a sound fades or a stone cools, and why it is not destroyed.

Assessment

  • Formative (observation): Can the learner name a source and a receiver for one energy transfer and say what moves?
  • Self: The learner checks their record: “Did I name a source, what moves, and a receiver for each?”

Home connection

At home, trace one energy transfer with a grown-up — a kettle heating water, a phone lighting a page, a voice reaching across a room — and say the source and the receiver.

Resources