Explain stored energy using a stretched rubber band or wound toy, and describe how stored energy converts into motion energy when released.
Not all energy is moving yet. Some energy is stored up, waiting, ready to cause a change the moment it is released. A stretched rubber band holds stored energy: while it is stretched and held, nothing is moving, but the moment you let go, that stored energy turns into motion energy and the band snaps back.
The more you stretch the rubber band, the more energy gets stored inside it, and the harder it snaps back when released. The same idea explains a wound-up toy: winding the toy stores energy in its twisted spring, and releasing it lets that stored energy turn into the motion of the wheels.
Mastery looks like: They can identify stored energy in a stretched or wound object and explain how releasing it converts the stored energy into motion.
Common stumbles: Believing an object has no energy at all until it is moving; not connecting the amount of stretch or wind to the amount of energy stored.