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How energy travels around

Observe and provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents

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What a learner can do afterwards

  • Give at least one example of energy transfer by each: sound, light, heat, electric current
  • Explain that energy moves from a source to a destination through these means
  • Describe how electric currents transfer energy from a battery to a bulb through wires

The lesson

Energy never stays in one spot. It moves from a source to somewhere else. Sound carries energy through the air to your ears. Light carries energy from something bright to your eyes. Heat carries energy from something warm to something cooler. Electric current carries energy through wires.

Try it together

A ringing bell makes the air vibrate. Those vibrations carry sound energy across the room, all the way to your ears.

BatteryWireBulb
Energy leaves the battery, travels through the wire, and reaches the bulb, lighting it up.
Good to know

Every example has a source and a place the energy arrives. Sound: bell to ear. Light: lamp to eye. Heat: radiator to skin. Electric current: battery to bulb, through wires.

Energy always travels from a source to a destination, by sound, light, heat, or electric current through wires.

Watch it

Where it sits

Where this leads

Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.

Then practise

8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.

How energy travels around · Science, ages 9 to 10 · LightMySky