Search and Rescue: Heat and Energy Transfer by Isabel Thomas

We all love a story and if you can impart information by telling a story it is so much more effectively retained.

Search and Rescue tells middle primary readers about heat and energy transfer by telling the story of… well, a search and rescue operation. A soldier is lost in the jungle and the commandos go to search for him.

The helicopter transports them courtesy of kinetic energy. The commandos sitting in the helicopter have potential energy until, of course, they jump. Then, while using kinetic energy they also feel the thermal energy of the hot air. And so it continues. The story includes campfires, cooking utensils, conductors, insulators (sleeping bags of course), thermal cameras and solar radios.

The commandos get their man, and the story ends examining a map and a mission debrief back at headquarters.

This is a good practical way to look at energy transfer, appealing to middle to senior primary school children – especially boys.

Published by Raintree