Notes: THIS LESSON REQUIRES NO SPECIAL MATERIALS — JUST BOOKS TO BALANCE.
The lesson explores the energy of position:Â potential energy.
Student are challenged to prevent stored potential energy from abruptly being
transformed into kinetic energy.
They use a skate-board-park simulation to investigate how these two forms of
mechanical energy interrelate.
With the simulation students discover the first law of thermodynamics:Â energy
cannot be created or destroyed.