This pre-assessment checks what you already know about how speed relates to energy and how energy can be transferred by sound, light, heat, and electric currents—especially during collisions.
Give one word to complete the sentence: When an object moves faster, its energy is _____.
You roll a ball slowly into a stack of cups, then roll the same ball faster into the same stack. What observation would be evidence that the faster ball had more energy?
Put these events in order to describe what you might observe during a collision between a moving cart and a box.
Cart collides with the box
Box starts moving
Cart moves toward the box
Cart slows down
Two identical carts collide. Cart A is moving fast and Cart B is moving slowly before the collision. After the collision, both carts move away more slowly than Cart A was moving before. Use evidence from the speed changes to explain what happened to the energy during the collision. Include at least two observations (sound, heat, motion, etc.).
A student claims: “Speed and energy are not related.” Use evidence from a simple investigation (real or imagined) to construct an explanation that supports or refutes the claim.
List two ways you could observe energy being transferred from place to place during a collision (for example, sound, heat, light, or motion).
Put the steps in order for investigating how speed affects energy using a toy car and a stack of cups.
Set up the cups the same way each time
Roll the car slowly into the cups
Reset the cups the same way
Roll the car faster into the cups
A rolling cart hits a box and slows down. Ask one question you could investigate about what happened to the cart’s energy during the collision, then predict the outcome and support it with two observations (what you see/hear/feel).