Driving Questions: Tell the "energy story." Where is the energy coming from? Where is the energy going? What does the energy do? Where are energy transfers happening?
I showed the students the mini, extra-short Rube Goldberg machine that I had set up in the classroom. First, they watched me demonstrate it live, then they watched the slow-motion video several times.
After that, they worked with partner to create initial models. We agreed that arrows would show the flow of energy, and that they would write explanations and draw on the model to show the direction the energy was moving. They would try to "tell the energy story" on their models.