MS: NGSS - Energy Curriculum Bundle: 3 NGSS Units + 11 Additional Labs

Energy Curriculum Bundle: 3 NGSS Units + 11 Additional Labs | Kinetic & Potential Energy, Energy Transfer, Thermal Energy | Grades 6–8

Teach your whole energy sequence with one purchase. This bundle includes three complete NextWave Science units and all eleven companion labs. That's 28 lessons, 11 hands-on labs, and 3 end-of-unit assessments, all aligned to NGSS and ready to teach. Save [X]% compared with buying each resource separately.

What's Included

• Unit 1: Kinetic & Potential Energy: Investigating Energy in Motion and Energy in Systems (10 lessons)

Students crash toy cars into cups to measure kinetic energy, then graph how mass and speed change it. They drop balls into flour to find the energy stored by height and explore the hidden energy between magnets and charged balloons. They finish by building a marble coaster and explaining it with an energy model and a CER.

NGSS: MS-PS3-1, MS-PS3-2

• Kinetic & Potential Energy Labs (4 labs)
• Cup Crash Lab: how mass affects kinetic energy
• Speed Zone Lab: how speed affects kinetic energy (doubling the speed makes the cup slide about 4 times as far)
• Crater Drop Lab: how drop height affects gravitational potential energy
• Magnet Gap Lab: how distance and orientation change the energy stored between magnets
• Unit 2: Energy Transfer & Conservation: Tracking Energy When Motion Changes (6 lessons)

Students trace where motion goes when objects collide, bounce, and slide. They measure temperature changes as friction turns motion into thermal energy and build an energy inventory for a bouncing ball. They finish by writing, presenting, and critiquing an evidence-based argument that energy is transferred, not used up.

NGSS: MS-PS3-5

• Energy Transfer Labs (3 labs)
• Magnet Launch: energy transferred from a magnetic field, with no push
• Sail Cart Challenge: energy transferred from moving air to a cart
• Swing Swap: energy passing back and forth between two connected pendulums
• Unit 3: Thermal Energy & Heat Transfer: Investigating and Controlling Energy Flow (12 lessons)

Students discover that thermal energy is the energy of moving particles. They investigate how mass and type of matter affect temperature change and design and run their own investigations. They finish by engineering an insulated container and defending it with a CER.

NGSS: MS-PS3-3, MS-PS3-4, MS-ETS1-1 to 4

• Heat Transfer Labs + Insulation (4 labs)
• Melting Race: conduction through metal, plastic, and wooden spoons
• Rising & Sinking: convection with hot and cold colored water
• Soak Up the Sun: radiation and how surface color affects warming
• Ice Cube Keeper: which insulators best slow thermal energy transfer

Every Unit Includes

• A Read Me First guide with pacing and a full materials list
• A Teacher Guide: each lesson has a timed flow, "Listen for" and "Watch for" notes, a differentiation menu, and an exit ticket
• Student Notes for every lesson
• Exit tickets, printed 3 per page
• An end-of-unit assessment
• Answer keys for the notes, exit tickets, and assessment
• Printable station cards
• Scoring rubrics: Energy Model, Engineering Design, CER, and Argument

Every Lab Includes

• A 4-page Teacher Guide with NGSS alignment
• A Student Lab Sheet with a fair-test plan, data tables, analysis, a CER, and an Honors Extension
• An Answer Key with sample data and CER examples at three levels

Differentiation Built In, Everywhere

Every lesson and lab includes options for:

• ELL / multilingual learners
• Neurodivergent learners
• Advanced / gifted & honors students

Each teacher guide also explains how to differentiate while keeping every student on the same standards.

NGSS Coverage

• MS-PS3-1 through MS-PS3-5: the complete middle school Energy set
• MS-ETS1-1 to 4: engineering design in the insulated container challenge

Pacing

• 65-minute periods: about 31 class days for the three units, including assessment days. Add up to 11 lab days.
• 45-minute periods: about 45 class days for the three units, plus the labs.
• Each unit also works as a stand-alone, so you can teach them in any order.

Why Buy the Bundle?

• Save 10% over buying the units and labs separately
• One consistent format across every unit and lab, so students learn the routines once
• A complete story of energy: from what makes moving and stored energy, to how energy moves between objects, to how we control the flow of thermal energy

Terms of Use: This purchase is a single-user license for use in your own classroom. Please purchase additional licenses for colleagues.