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4th grade · Science · Unit 3 of 14

Forms of Energy

Energy changes form

What your child practices

Kinetic and potential energy, how energy changes from one form to another, and why some energy always escapes as heat, light or sound.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.3; 4.4 · forms of energy and how energy changes from one form to another

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion.
  2. Potential energy is stored. Higher objects have more gravitational potential energy.
  3. Springs, food and batteries also store energy.
  4. Energy changes form. Friction turns motion into heat.

Example: Which has more potential energy: a ball on the floor or a ball on a table? Higher objects have more gravitational potential energy. The table is higher than the floor. Answer: the ball on the table

Forms of Energy in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 3 of 14 in 4th grade Science, after Energy on the Move and before Waves & Codes.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    You rub your hands together and they feel warm. Kinetic energy changed into…

    • light energy
    • chemical energy
    • thermal energy

  2. Question 2

    A moving swing has kinetic energy. When it pauses at the top of its path, it has mostly…

    • chemical energy
    • potential energy
    • sound energy

  3. Question 3

    An old-style light bulb gives off light and a lot of heat. What does the heat show?

    • Some energy was not changed into the light we wanted
    • Heat is a form of matter
    • Energy was destroyed

  4. Question 4

    A mixer changes electrical energy into mostly…

    • potential energy
    • chemical energy
    • kinetic energy

  5. Question 5

    A roller coaster speeds along the bottom of a hill. It now has mostly…

    • no energy
    • potential energy
    • kinetic energy

  6. Question 6

    A wind-up toy stops after its spring unwinds. What happened to the spring's stored energy?

    • It is still in the spring
    • It changed to motion, then to heat and sound
    • It disappeared

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