Subscribe

6th grade · Science · Unit 4 of 9

Kinetic & Potential Energy

Energy of motion and stored energy.

What your child practices

Practices how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, how potential energy changes with position, and how energy transfers change an object's motion.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 6.P4U2.5 · stored (potential) energy and energy of motion (kinetic)

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. Faster or heavier objects have more.
  2. Potential energy is stored energy due to position or condition.
  3. A high object has gravitational potential energy. A stretched band has elastic potential energy.
  4. Pushing an object transfers energy to it, so it speeds up.

Example: A stretched rubber band is about to be let go. Which kind of energy does it have? It is not moving yet, so the energy is stored. Stretching stores elastic potential energy. Answer: elastic potential energy

Kinetic & Potential Energy in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 4 of 9 in 6th grade Science, after Fields & Forces at a Distance and before Seasons & Tides.

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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    Which has more kinetic energy?

    • A ball at rest
    • A bike at 50 km/h
    • A parked truck
    • A truck at 50 km/h

  2. Question 2

    A stretched rubber band has…

    • nuclear energy
    • sound energy
    • kinetic energy only
    • elastic potential energy

  3. Question 3

    Potential energy is…

    • the speed of light
    • stored energy due to position or condition
    • energy of motion
    • a type of force

  4. Question 4

    Energy can't be created or destroyed, only…

    • multiplied
    • deleted
    • transferred or transformed
    • invented

  5. Question 5

    Water held behind a dam has…

    • no energy
    • kinetic energy only
    • gravitational potential energy
    • sound energy only

  6. Question 6

    A graph shows KE rising as speed rises, curving upward. The relationship is…

    • constant
    • not a straight line
    • decreasing
    • a straight line

More 6th grade