Energy
is the ability to do work.
We use energy for everything we do.
A car is doing work and using energy when you go for a ride. A
light bulb is doing work and using energy when it makes light.
Your
phone is doing work and using energy when you talk to friends.
Trucks are doing work and using energy when they carry things from one
place to another
Motion
or
Kinetic Energy
is what makes things move, like when you go for a run, or when
an airplane flies in the sky.
Light
or Radiant Energycomes from the sun or a
lightbulb.
Heat
or Thermal Energy
makes things warm.
Electrical Energy
is the electricity we use in our home to keep the lights on, to make
the TV work, and to keep food cold in the fridge.
Chemical Energy
is the energy stored in coal, gasoline, or other fuels that we burn to generate electricity
or make a car run.
Gravitational Energy
is what holds us to the earth, and makes the earth and other
planets rotate around the sun.
Nuclear Energy
is what holds atoms together.
We
don't really make energy. We convert one form of energy
into another.
A dam on a river
converts the
Motion Energy
of the flowing water into
Electrical Energy.
When people put solar
panels on their houses they are changing the
Light Energy
from the sun into
Electrical Energy.
When we turn on a
light we are changing Electrical Energy
into Light Energy.
The sun's energy comes to the
earth in the form of light. Sunlight makes life on earth possible.
The sun is responsible for earth's weather, the wind, the rain, the
seasons, the currents in the oceans.
Plants use the energy of the
sun for photosysthesis, to create food for themselves and to grow.
Animals depend on the plants for food.
The energy of the fire is heat and
light.
When we burn wood, we are releasing little bundles of the
sun's energy that fell on earth long ago. That energy made the
tree grow and it is stored in the wood.
First, the energy on the sun is
generated by nuclear energy.
Then, the sun's energy travels to earth as light.
Next, plants use the light energy to make food, that's
chemical energy.
Finally, we eat the food and we change the chemical energy
into kenetic energy - movement - that's when we spin the fidget!
Fossil fuels are the remains of
plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, in the
time of dinosaurs and earlier. The plants and animals that lived so long
ago have been buried deep underground for all of that time and the heat and
the pressure of the earth have changed them into oil, or coal, or
natural gas.
We burn fossil fuels to change their chemical energy into other forms of
energy we can use, like electrity, or to power airplanes, boats, cars,
and trucks.
Renewable energy, also called
clean energy or green energy, is energy created by nature that does not
get used up.
The sun, the wind, and a flowing river are examples of renewable energy.
Thank you, Richard and Marci Yates for your work on the
solar cooker!
A car is doing work and using energy when you go for a ride. 
Fossil fuels are the remains of
plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, in the
time of dinosaurs and earlier. The plants and animals that lived so long
ago have been buried deep underground for all of that time and the heat and
the pressure of the earth have changed them into oil, or coal, or
natural gas.
