5e Investigation and Exploration designed for the NGSS "Energy Skate Park"

5e Investigation and Exploration designed for the NGSS. Comes with two versions, one for students to write on and a shorter class set that can be reused if students record answers in an interactive notebook or on loose leaf to turn in.

Using this interactive lab students will be able to design investigations to explore how changing mass of the skater, the height of the skater above the ground, the speed of skater on the ramp and the amount of friction affects the types of energy and total amount of energy in the system.

Students will use the virtual Lab “Energy Skate Park” https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/energy-skate-park-basics/latest/energy-skate-park-basics_en.html from PhET. This is an online simulation. If you use the HMTL version of Energy Skate Park it will work on Chromebooks and does not require you to install Java.

Students might need a brief introduction to the simulation and they should note that there are different options within the simulation For the first part of the investigation we are not considering friction so they should be in the first tab. In the second tab they can also change the amount of friction in the system

This simulation can be used for more independent student designed investigations

Designed for NGSSMS-PS3-2 Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system
MS-PS3-5. Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object

Contains Files in a Zipped Folder ** Updated on 10/16/19 with Clearer directions on "Top", "Middle" and "Bottom" of Ramp and with a larger word bank for student choice.
Cover and TOU (2 pages)

Lesson Planner, Teacher Notes, and Suggested Scaffolding for Students (PDF) (3 pages)
Investigation Worksheet 2 versions

1. Version A is a students handout/guide they can write answers on (4 pages) PDF
2. Version B is a class set that requires students to write answers in a notebook or on other paper (3 pages) PDF- Good for teachers with photocopy limits.

Answer Key (PDF) (5 pages)