Materials
Students will need the materials listed on the website:

Objective
Students will witness various forms of energy transfer. When placing the blade of the pinwheel under a stream of running water, they will see the mechanical energy of water transferred to mechanical energy of the pinwheel. When heating the teakettle on the burner, students will see the electrical energy from the burner change to heat (radiant energy) that is transferred to water. When students hold the pinwheel blades in the path of the steam and the blades turn, they will see that the mechanical energy of moving steam is transferred to mechanical energy of the moving pinwheel blades.

Safety First

• Students should be supervised by an adult while doing this experiment.
• Students should use an oven mitt to protect their hand.

Getting It Across
Have students read the information and follow the steps on the page. Explain that in this experiment, the energy source that was used to create the steam is whatever energy source is used to run the stovetop: probably electricity or natural gas. In power plants, the steam that is used to run generator turbines can be created from a variety of energy sources, including coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power. Even geothermal energy and biomass can be used to provide steam.

Questions and Answers