• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Identify energy stores in everyday situations). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which energy store is the main one here: a squashed spring in a toy? (chemical store / thermal store / elastic potential store / gravitational potential store) → elastic potential storePrompt: Is it moving, high up, stretched, hot, a fuel or food, or atomic?
2. A ball is thrown straight up. As it rises and slows down, which store increases? (kinetic / chemical / nuclear / gravitational potential) → gravitational potentialPrompt: Its height increases while its speed decreases.
3. Energy stores: which statement is NOT true? (Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred between stores. / A faster object has more energy in its kinetic store. / Energy is measured in joules (J). / Light and sound are energy stores.) → Light and sound are energy stores.Prompt: Is light a store or a way of transferring energy?

• Wind up a toy or stretch an elastic band and ask where the energy goes.
• Share the objective: Follow energy transfers and spot wasted energy. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Every second, an electric fan is supplied with 500 J of energy. 450 J is transferred usefully (movement of the blades). How much energy is wasted each second, in J?
• Step 1: 500 − 450 = 50
• Step 2: So the answer is: 50 J
• Answer: 50 J
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Every second, an electric kettle is supplied with 100 J of energy. 60 J is transferred usefully (heating the water). How much energy is wasted each second, in J? → 40 JPrompt: Total energy in = useful energy out + wasted energy out.
2. Which is a way energy is TRANSFERRED, not a store? (kinetic / chemical / by electric current / thermal) → by electric currentPrompt: Transfers move energy between stores.

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Energy transfers: which statement is true? (Wasted energy is destroyed. / Machines can give out more energy than they take in. / An LED lamp transfers all its energy to light. / The total energy before and after a transfer is the same.) → The total energy before and after a transfer is the same.Prompt: Can energy ever be destroyed?
2. Some electric cars use regenerative braking. What does this do? (makes the brakes hotter / creates new energy from nothing / stops the car using air only / transfers kinetic energy back into the battery's chemical store) → transfers kinetic energy back into the battery's chemical storePrompt: The motor works as a generator while slowing.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-6.