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IN THE CLASSROOM:
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| La Crescenta Elementary students Jenny Joo, 9, and Esther Yoon, 9, use a wind-up grasshopper to learn about energy during a science lesson with an educator from the Kidspace Museum on Tueday. (Roger Wilson/Glendale News-Press) |
A recent lesson on some different energy sources manages to captivate minds at La Crescenta Elementary.
By Ani Amirkhanian
Third-graders at La Crescenta Elementary School giggled as their wind-up grasshoppers wobbled around on their desks during a lesson on different sources of energy.
Punam Bhakta, an educator from Kidspace Museum in Pasadena, visited students to speak to them about energy sources that are found in everyday items, such as flashlights, batteries and toys.
“A lot of things we use in everyday life need a source of energy,” Bhakta said.
Students took part in hands-on activities to better understand the lesson being presented.
“You can have energy and you can store it,” 9-year-old Andrea Pimentel said as she wound the battery-powered grasshopper. “When you turn this off, it stores the energy inside.”
Andrea and about 30 of her classmates received a kit containing items that used a source of energy to function. The toy grasshopper was one of them. And so was a flashlight.
Students took the flashlights from their kits, but the flashlights didn’t work without the batteries. They placed the batteries in the flashlights and turned them on.
“It didn’t work because it didn’t have stored energy,” Bhakta said.
But not all energy is stored, Bhakta said.
Students tapped a tuning fork with a pencil and listened to the vibrations resonate to learn about sound as another source of energy.
Marina Lociero, 9, leaned toward the tuning fork to listen to the sound it made after she gently tapped it with a pencil.
“It’s cool,” Marina said. “It sounds like the energy makes a sound in my ear drum.”
Marina’s partner, 9-year-old Young Woo Choi, listened to the sound the tuning fork made after he hit it with the pencil.
“I heard a ding, ding, like the sound of a bell,” he said, as he scratched his ear.
Students also discussed the different types of energy that are stored in the human body.
“What energizes us?” Bhakta asked the students.
A sea of hands went up in the air as students shouted out the types of foods they eat for energy.
“People and animals need to have food to have energy and mechanical things like cars need gas for energy,” Esther Yoon, 9, said.
The lesson on the different sources of energy is a review of third-grade science standards, teacher Janet Han.
“It’s just a nice change of pace for them,” Han said of the Kidspace Museum visitor and the activities.
Punam Bhakta, an educator from Kidspace Museum in Pasadena, visited students to speak to them about energy sources that are found in everyday items, such as flashlights, batteries and toys.
“A lot of things we use in everyday life need a source of energy,” Bhakta said.
Students took part in hands-on activities to better understand the lesson being presented.
“You can have energy and you can store it,” 9-year-old Andrea Pimentel said as she wound the battery-powered grasshopper. “When you turn this off, it stores the energy inside.”
Andrea and about 30 of her classmates received a kit containing items that used a source of energy to function. The toy grasshopper was one of them. And so was a flashlight.
Students took the flashlights from their kits, but the flashlights didn’t work without the batteries. They placed the batteries in the flashlights and turned them on.
“It didn’t work because it didn’t have stored energy,” Bhakta said.
But not all energy is stored, Bhakta said.
Students tapped a tuning fork with a pencil and listened to the vibrations resonate to learn about sound as another source of energy.
Marina Lociero, 9, leaned toward the tuning fork to listen to the sound it made after she gently tapped it with a pencil.
“It’s cool,” Marina said. “It sounds like the energy makes a sound in my ear drum.”
Marina’s partner, 9-year-old Young Woo Choi, listened to the sound the tuning fork made after he hit it with the pencil.
“I heard a ding, ding, like the sound of a bell,” he said, as he scratched his ear.
Students also discussed the different types of energy that are stored in the human body.
“What energizes us?” Bhakta asked the students.
A sea of hands went up in the air as students shouted out the types of foods they eat for energy.
“People and animals need to have food to have energy and mechanical things like cars need gas for energy,” Esther Yoon, 9, said.
The lesson on the different sources of energy is a review of third-grade science standards, teacher Janet Han.
“It’s just a nice change of pace for them,” Han said of the Kidspace Museum visitor and the activities.
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