Lesson Plan: Work and Energy
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to calculate work with the formula work = force × distance and relate work done to transfer of energy.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- know that energy can be measured in joules,
- know that energy of different categories can be transferred to and from work,
- calculate work done using the following formula: work done = force distance.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the fact that an energy transfer can be a decrease in an object’s energy of one category that is accompanied by an increase in another object’s energy of the same or a different category,
- the fact that the total decrease in the energy categories in a transfer is equal to the total increase in energy categories in the transfer.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- rearrangement of ,
- the sign of work done (all work is treated as positive),
- microstructures of objects that correspond to magnetic, chemical, elastic potential, or thermal energy,
- the term system,
- dissipation.
