NEED Educators Basic Primary Curriculum Unit

Primary school students working on a science experiment

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES

Primary Energy Poll
Energy Polls can be used to assess students’ basic energy knowledge, as well as their opinions about energy before and after your classroom energy unit.

Energy Games and Icebreakers
This guide contains offers entertaining activities to introduce energy, efficiency, and conservation to students, as well as reinforce the information that has already been presented. Video of Energy Chants(opens in new tab)

STEP ONE: Science of Energy

Primary Energy Infobook
Energy Infobooks are the resource for many NEED activities and include an introduction to energy, information on major sources of energy, new technologies, energy conservation, electricity, climate change, and other energy information. They are available on four reading levels and are revised and updated annually.

Primary Science of Energy
In the Primary unit, students investigate tangible ways that energy transfers and identify the forms of energy they see, hear, and feel through different phenomena. Each of the six stations includes background information, a scripted teacher demonstration, reading, writing, and phonics support.

What Is Energy? Teacher Guide
What Is Energy? Student Guide
This unit for primary students includes background information and hands-on experiments to explore the fundamental concepts of energy while practicing their science process skills. Students explore the science of motion, heat, sound, and light with a series of simple activities that incorporate both Imperial and metric measurements, using safe student thermometers, balances, rulers, measuring tapes, beakers, and graduated cylinders. Students learn to make observations, measure, record results, compare and contrast, categorize, make predictions, analyze and graph results, and draw conclusions.

STEP TWO: Sources of Energy

Primary Energy Infobook Activities
Energy Infobooks are the resource for many NEED activities and include an introduction to energy, information on major sources of energy, new technologies, energy conservation, electricity, climate change, and other energy information. They are available on four reading levels and are revised and updated annually.

Energy Stories and More
This guide contains a series of stories and hands-on activities that can be used to introduce basic energy concepts and the major energy sources to primary and elementary students.

STEP THREE: Electricity and Magnetism

Wonders of Magnets
Students explore the basics of magnets and magnetism through background reading and hands-on center-based experiments.

STEP FOUR: Transportation

Transportation Exploration (Teacher and Student Guide)
Students of all ages take an interest in transportation. Students will become familiar with modes of transportation, how transportation uses energy, transportation fuels, EVs, emissions, fuel economy, and the history of transportation in America, while engaging in hands-on, science, math, and language arts activities. Student background information, in conjunction with the activities will help students learn the basics of how we move people and goods, the environmental impacts of transportation as an industry, and how their choices as consumers contribute to energy consumption for transportation.

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STEP FIVE: Efficiency and Conservation

Using and Saving Energy
This guide introduces students to basic concepts of energy use and conservation at home in a read-aloud format and provides suggested activities.

CAREER AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

My Future Energy Career
This guide contains offers entertaining activities to introduce energy, efficiency, and conservation to students, as well as reinforce the information that has already been presented.

STEP SIX: Synthesis and Reinforcement

Primary Energy Carnival
NEED’s popular carnival games are an excellent way to encourage students and adults to think about energy. The Primary Energy Carnival contains nine games appropriate for students in grades K-3.

STEP SEVEN: Evaluation

Question Bank
As you develop your energy unit, it may be helpful to build your own energy assessments. NEED’s Question Bank allows educators to customize evaluations to fit the needs of their students. Questions are available at the four levels, and are divided by topic. Within each topic, various formats of questions are included, such as knowledge, comprehension, multiple choice, and higher-order thinking formatted questions. Feel free to select from many different categories to tailor the assessment for your student. Questions are provided at four grade levels for a variety of energy topics in easy to access word documents.