Rationale
When I was five, I had virtually no concept of energy. My house was warm in the winter, cool in the summer. Mom could take cold food from the refrigerator and make it hot on the stove. With the turn of a knob, I could be entertained by Big Bird on channel 12. It was just the way my world worked. It’s also the way my students’ world works. Kindergarteners have no understanding of energy. The only time they would likely even consider what powers their world is when the lights go out. Honestly, aside from paying the electric bill or the gas pump, I expect most adults are very much like primary students in this thinking. So how do we begin to get people thinking? Do we go to the old dogs with our new tricks? Or do we begin by showing the puppies a new way of thinking about energy?
The Delaware Science Standards in kindergarten include a unit called Push, Pull, and Go. This is a favored unit of my students. It is their introduction to the topic of force. Throughout the lessons, students will experiment with rubber balls and K’nex building toys. They build slides, swings, and tops as they explore force and motion. Having witnessed the classes’ passion for this unit, I thought to expand the unit and lay the groundwork for an understanding of energy sciences by enriching the curriculum with lessons designed to have the students making choices about sources of power. Due to the young age of my students, I have decided to focus on energy sources that they should easily understand: non-renewable (battery), solar, and wind.
Kindergarteners learn best when they are actively engaged in their learning. During this unit, students will design a series of Lego cars. Through these cars they will explore forces and motion. From past experience, I know that they will be excited to design and test their cars. Initially they will explore force and motion by pushing their cars. The lesson will be enriched by adding a power source for the vehicles. The class will explore battery-powered (non-renewable and can be compared to fossil fuels), solar-powered, and wind-powered cars. Students will ultimately design, test, and decide upon a final “ultimate” vehicle based on their learning.
I think it is important to mention that, within a few years, Delaware will be shifting away from the Delaware Science Standards and towards the Next Generation Science Standards. The new unit is entitled Force and Interactions. The content remains similar: a focus on the forces that act upon objects and the way that said objects respond to those forces. The difference between the standards is in our delivery of content. While Delaware calls for student observation, Next Generation requires students to conduct an investigation. This unit is designed to have students participating in the latter.
Another reason I have chosen to develop this unit is because I am a proponent of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, or STEM. STEM is a huge push in education right now. This push is not just coming from educators. Tim Sutherland the CEO of Pace Global Energy Services, a strategic energy consulting service, has expressed the need for STEM. “Our educational system is failing to stimulate interest and to excite our children to learn more about the sciences, engineering, and quantitative skills… America must do more to be competitive.”2 In this unit students design, build, test, and compare results to draw their own conclusions about sources of power. Mr. Sutherland advocates stimulating and exciting our students to problem solve, experiment, and think critically. This unit will have that effect in class.
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