Teach the Cast
Some of PowerForge’s cast are still learning. When you teach them, YOU learn it best — catch what they get wrong, then quiz them.
Teach Keep
You be the teacher — Keep is still learning. Helping Keep figure it out is the practice. (Only for you; nothing is saved.)
Teach the connections
Show how the energy ideas connect
You've helped them one at a time. The real understanding is how the ideas CONNECT — teach that next.
Perch (potential energy — energy stored by position) × Sprint (kinetic energy — the energy of motion)
A ball at the top of a ramp has no speed but lots of stored energy; at the bottom it is fast. How do Perch and Sprint explain that?
Perch then says: “The moving ball at the bottom has entirely new energy, unrelated to the energy it had at the top.” — is that right?
The link: potential and kinetic are one energy, trading between stored and moving.
Stored up high becomes speed down low.
Trade (energy conversion — one form turning into another) × Keep (conservation — the law that energy is never created or destroyed)
A toy car converts battery energy to motion, but some is lost as heat. How do Trade and Keep account for all of it?
Trade then says: “During an energy conversion, some energy just vanishes and the total goes down.” — is that right?
The link: conversion can change the form but conservation keeps the total.
Change the form, but the total is kept.
Capstone — trace one energy story together
Three ideas about energy. Bring in the cast member for each.
Energy stored by position. Who?
Who do you bring in?
Energy of motion. Who?
Who do you bring in?
The law that the total is conserved. Who?
Who do you bring in?
The synthesis: energy stored, energy moving, and the law that keeps the total — the whole story of a rolling ball.
Store, move, and conserve — energy in motion.
Try it in the ramp lab →
