GRADE 4 Unit 3: ENERGY TO CHANGE

In the Energy to Change project, 4th grade students think about problems and issues they are facing in their own lives and consider how energy can help. They learn about how energy transfers and can transform, and work in groups to create a Rube Goldberg-inspired chain reaction machine to solve a simple problem. Students will then transfer their experience to brainstorm problems they wish to solve in their community. Through the art of forum theatre, and a community-based engineering approach, students will create action steps towards making a change in their community. By using agency and energy to solve problems, students will inspire dialogue about some of the issues they care about that they would like to see change. Through creating their chain reaction machines and crafting their community change efforts, students’ will spark curiosity about energy, where it comes from, where it goes and how we can use the power of energy to solve problems and change systems.

Click the green buttons below to access the aligned standards in the Scope and Sequence document, along with final product resources and student work samples from the project.