In Adel Collins's fourth-grade science classes, students have been actively exploring potential energy this month. They began by learning about three types of potential energy—elastic, gravitational, and chemical—discussing examples and key properties of each. Next, they investigated the difference between potential and kinetic energy, and explored how concepts like work, motion, and force relate to energy.

To dive into gravitational potential energy, students participated in a "Rockin' Race Cars" activity, where they rolled Matchbox cars down ramps, measuring how ramp height affected the distance traveled. When they moved on to elastic potential energy, students crafted their own catapults using pencils, bottle caps, tape, rubber bands, and popsicle sticks. In the Center for Creativity and Design, students completed their catapults by hot-gluing bottle caps to the popsicle sticks, making them ready for testing once dry.

For testing, Adel paired students at each table and set up a series of three staggered bowls as targets. Each student received a small bouncy yellow ball and formulated an "If...then" hypothesis before trying to launch the ball into each of the three bowls. Points were scored for each successful landing: one for the closest bowl, two for the middle, and three for the farthest. The bouncy balls proved tricky, often skittering off tables and across the room, prompting some students to swap them for beans in hopes of achieving more consistent results. Through experimentation, students found that pushing down on the popsicle stick created greater elastic potential energy, propelling their ball or bean farther and giving them firsthand insight into the principles of energy.