Energy stores in the energy shopping mall
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An engaging worksheet to help KS3 students understand the law of conservation of energy and the types of energy stores. It also practises basic maths skills for science.
The activity uses shopping as an analogy for energy transfers, with five shops representing the five energy stores:
- Thermal energy store – the Winter Clothing Store
- Chemical energy store – the All You Can Eat food and drink company
- Kinetic energy store – the Trendy Transport company
- Gravitational potential energy store (GPE store) – the Skydiving and Fitness Suite
- Elastic potential energy store – the Catapult and Bungee Jumping Cabin
Students use information cards about four shoppers’ spending to work out:
- how much 'energy-money' the shoppers have spent on various items
- the total energy transferred
- the amount of energy each energy store has gained.
A diagram and background information on energy stores and energy transfers are provided, as are answers and a worked example.
Explore our other energy resources.
An extract from the background information:
Energy can never be made or destroyed. It can only move from one energy store to another.
Almost all energy comes from the Sun. Light energy is used by plants to photosynthesise. During photosynthesis, the light energy is transferred to the plant’s chemical store.
What is the plant’s energy store?
Humans (and other animals) eat the plants to give their bodies the energy needed to stay alive. If you go for a ride on your bike, for example, your body will transfer the energy from your chemical energy store to the bicycle’s kinetic energy store – the faster you pedal, the faster the bicycle’s kinetic energy fills up and your chemical energy stores empty.
