Greek Mythology and the Forms of Energy
updated November 30, 2019

Using Donna Quillen's unit for unit outline and EnergyWorks Student Guide for Science experiments. Here are my notes as to our additional activities.

Sound - Echo

We kicked off this unit with a field trip to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to see their "Science of Sound" educational program. It was the perfect introduction to the topic! However, you could begin with any trip to see a symphony perform.



Review onomatopoeia (Poetry unit).

The speed of sound through air is approximately 343 meters per second. Have students use a meter stick to measure 343 meters of string (see my blog post). Then go outside to a field and lay the string in a straight line!

Online Tuning Forks (the internet is an amazing thing)

Boomwhackers -- a link to buy them, a link for lesson materials

Light - Narcissus

New Mexico Solar Energy Association Energy Concepts Primer

Make a Spectroscope from a CD

A cardboard box, any size that can hold a CD or DVD disk will do
Scissors
Some aluminum tape (found in hardware stores), or some aluminum foil and glue
Two single edged razor blades
A small cardboard tube, the kind used as a core to wrap paper on
Some cellophane tape
A CD or DVD that can be sacrificed to this project

The speed of light is nearly 300,000,000 meters per second (299,792,458 m/s) so we did NOT try to measure a piece of string that long!

Heat - Prometheus

"The Sun and the Wind" fable - Aesop

"Prometheus" by Lord Byron

Growth - Demeter and Persephone

We sent the children home over Spring Break with the different Growth experiments from the EnergyWorks Student Guide, asking them to come back after the Break and report their results. Some activities we did in the classroom were:

• view animal and plant cell slides under the microscope
• Comparing Animal and Plant Cells Venn Diagram
  or, if you prefer, a blank Venn diagram (without vocabulary words)
• Mousekin's Close Call by Edna Miller - discuss food chains and food webs
• Mousekin's Family by Edna Miller - follow up with Five Kingdoms materials
• make yogurt - my favorite recipe for EASY! Crockpot Yogurt
• acupuncturist visit to the classroom and lecture on Energy
• using a classroom incubator, hatch baby chicks from eggs
• An Egg Is Quiet by Dianna Hutts Aston

  

• Living Sunlight by Molly Bang

  

Electricity - Zeus

• The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

  

• Electricity book and "make a static wand" experiment
• Atom poster, Periodic Table poster

  If you want to gather supplies for use in teaching the periodic table more in-depth, I recommend

  

  

  The Bohr Atom Board from ETC Montessori

  Building Atoms with the Atom Board

• magnet kit/experiments
• shake flashlight
• Distance learning program from Mount Washington

Motion - Hermes

• stomp rockets!

*NOTE*
I started this unit March 1st and gave one week to each topic. On Earth Day (April 22, 2010) we began lessons on climate change and reducing our carbon footprint, a nice conclusion to the Energy unit.

FREE -- very traditional -- Eco-bunnies lesson plans by grade level from Travelocity:

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade

Fourth Grade

Fifth Grade

Sixth Grade

Seventh Grade

Eighth Grade