Energy is the ability to do work and it is around all us, we can find it at home, at school, on the street, in the countryside… It is the capacity of a body to act or produce a change. Energy comes in different forms: heat, light, motion, electrical, chemical, nuclear energy and gravitational. This energy can be provided by different natural sources in which we find two different types of them: renewable energy source and nonrenewable energy source. The first type is the energy source that can be easily replenished and the second one is the energy source that can`t be easily replenished. According to renewable energy, we can find five main sources like solar, geothermal, wind, biomass and hydropower energy and non-renewable energy can be found in petroleum products, hydrocarbon gas liquids, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy.

In class, we did some experiments in which we could appreciate the energy presence. One of them consisted of rubbing a glove in a soft texture for a while and then we could check that energy was around the glove because it was next to my hair without falling down. The same happened if we put the glove next to the wall.     Another experiment was about using the energy of a light to move a car toy without making use of the human strength.

After this, we took the fossils we made the week before and it was really fun because the shapes of the things we used could be clearly seen. It was a perfect example to explain what is a fossil and how it works throughout a lot of years.

Finally, we made a debate in different groups about some articles of energy, writing down negative and positive points which then we had to expose in the class. For this, we divided the class into two: one group was in favour and the other one against.

My peers had fun learning different actions from energy because of the development of the class. The debate was also really interesting because we had to read different articles which contained some data and knowledge we didn’t know and then we had to use it to defend that idea. It was really nice to see how they debated some issues from different points of view.

Personally, it is really important to show children events that occur in the development through activities and experiments in class. It promotes an easier learning for them if they can see and touch stuff and even more if they can provoke actions such us moving a car without using human strength. It is essential to explain this content in a fun and dynamical way because, on the contrary, it could be really boring for them just because energy is abstract and is something they can’t touch either see. We as teachers have to let them know about the presence of energy in their daily life and that is something really common that is around them every time. At the same time, it is important to teach children that energy must be protected, in terms that it can’t be wasted. We have to create awareness about energy can disappear if we don’t make a proper use of t. In this way, we could teach how we could use only the energy that we really need in our routine taking into account that every little change will help to save up energy and take care of our planet. “The BBC doles out

advice on how we can do our bit to save the planet – for example, “switch

off your mobile phone charger when it’s not in use;” (MacKay, 2008). It could be interesting to teach children different terms like energy efficiency and energy conservation, the first term makes reference to using a light-emitting diode (LED) light bulb that requires less energy than an incandescent light bulb to produce the same amount of light. On the contrary, energy conservation is any behaviour that results in the use of less energy, such as turn the lights off when leaving the room.

In relation with this, children can think about anything else that requires energy and never before thought about it and they can start to be aware of the importance of the energy for the functioning of the planet. Therefore, they will have a deeper knowledge of the environment, learning contents which are more difficult because they can’t see it and they will learn that environment is not only based on plants and animals, it is much more complicated.

According to the skills I developed, some of them were the critical thinker, analytical, imaginative, motivated and collaborative. This is because we had to think about different ways of energy and how we can appreciate through different ways, in the same way, we had to analyse different experiments and wonder ourselves why it occurred like that and look for reasons for it. Then we were motivated because we did some experiments what make us be motivated to learning new contents and at the same time to be collaborative to work with peers to check the different results of the experiments and argue why it may occur.

Some of the skills using the GTCS Professional Standards are the following:

2.1.2 Communicate effectively, using a variety of media, to stimulate pupils and achieve the objectives of lessons.

2.1.3 Employ a range of teaching strategies and justify their approach.

2.1.4 Set expectations and a pace of work which makes appropriate demands on all pupils.

They are important because it is crucial to have a clear communication for children using different sources to make the learning easier, in this case doing experiments, watching videos… to put them in relation to the content. Different strategies are needed to teach the contents and at the same time offer explanations to learn in an effective way. Finally, the good atmosphere in class is really important to work properly and to create a good place to learn each other. All of them are crucial because all of the content must be clear to provide a nice learning process but at the same time, if there’s no good atmosphere to work and learn, it is going to be difficult to achieve the objectives previously planned. To finish, connections with other areas of learning aren’t difficult to set because I think all of the skills are important to promote a good learning process and make easier to learn Maths, Language, Arts… I would point out the pace of work above all of them because it is necessary to have a good relationship between peers and teachers.

Energy Information Administration. (2018) What Is Energy? Explained. [Online]. Available: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=about_home [Accessed: 20 November 2018]

J.C. MacKay, D. (2008) Sustainable Energy – without the hot air. [Online] Available: file:///C:/Users/Alicia/Downloads/sewtha.pdf [Accessed: 21 November 2018]

Energy Information Administration. (2018) Using & Saving Energy. [Online]. Available: https://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.php?page=about_energy_efficiency-basics [Accessed: 20 November 2018]