News — conservation of energy

Energy never disappears — it just changes form. That sentence sounds simple until your students stare at a roller coaster problem and ask why the ball doesn't make it back to the same height. A well-designed energy conservation activity closes that gap faster than any lecture ever will. This post gives you concrete classroom-tested ideas for teaching conservation of energy in your high school physics class. You'll see how to frame the concept, which activities build the deepest understanding, how to connect it to NGSS standards, and how to layer in review so students don't lose the thread by test...

Teaching the energy unit in high school physics can feel like a breath of fresh air after the heavy vector math of forces and kinematics. Energy is a scalar, which means no more breaking things into x and y components! But it also comes with its own set of challenges. Students often struggle to connect the abstract concept of "work" to the very real phenomena of kinetic and potential energy, and keeping track of energy transformations can get messy fast. If you're looking for ways to make your energy unit more engaging, hands-on, and conceptually clear, you're in the right...