Last updated: July 18, 2025
Lesson Plan
Fuel & Energy Transfer in Steam Engines - Hercules STEAM Unit Lesson #4
A line drawing of a plan for the Babcock & Wilcox boiler(s), circa 1904.
Photo/NPS
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 4.RI.5, 4.RI.7
- Additional Standards:
- NGSS-4-PS3-2: Make observations to provide evidence that energy can be transferred from place to place by sound, light, heat, and electric currents.
- Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations.
Essential Question
How is energy transferred so that the Hercules can travel? How do communities face change?
Objective
In this 45-minute lesson, learners will be able to infer how energy is transferred in the boiler to help power the steamship.
Background
When heat, oxygen, and fuel are combined, a fire starts. This is a transfer from chemical energy (from the fuel) to heat energy (from the fire). This is important because the boiler room relies on fire to heat up water. With the help of the fire, water is transferred to steam.
Preparation
Print worksheets and review lesson slides.
If performing demonstration, prepare bunsen burner/camp stove to be turned on.
Materials
Download Feature Article on Fuel
Download Graphic Organizer Worksheet
Lesson Hook/Preview
So we know that Hercules used steam to move, but how did Hercules produce steam? In this lesson, you'll learn about the different kinds of fuels used aboard steamships, like Hercules, in the early 1900s.
Procedure
- Review students' knowledge from the previous lesson. Ask: What do we know about the purpose of the boiler room? What is the transfer of energy?
- Introduce the idea of cause and effect. Explain that "cause" is the reason why something happened, while "effect" is what happened. For example, it was raining (the cause), so I wore a rain jacket (the effect). OR The water was heated with fire (cause), so the water converted to steam (effect).
- Ask students to think of more causes and effects they noticed in the boiler room or in their everyday life. Demonstrate how to take "cause and effect" notes using the graphic organizer.
- Introduce the idea of different types of fuel.
- Explain task: Students will read a feature article on fuels and take notes of the cause and effect of fuel on Hercules.
- Classroom share: What are some of the main takeaways from the feature article?
- Link fire in the boiler room to previous experiment of creating fire on the bunsen burner/camping stove.
- **Bonus** Demonstration for students: turn on bunsen burner/camper stove and emphasize all the elements needed to start the fire. Students should take notes and draw observations.
- Classroom share: How do you think this experiment connects back to what is happening in the boiler room?
- Exit Ticket: What is the transfer of energy in the boiler room?
Vocabulary
Fuel: A substance which can be burned to produce heat, which can be converted to mechanical or electrical energy.
Energy: the ability to do work, make things happen, and cause changes.
Chemical energy: energy that is stored in chemicals and involved in reactions.
Thermal energy: energy in the form of heat.
Mechanical energy: energy in the form of movement.
Energy transfer: process in which energy is converted from one form to another, like chemical energy to mechanical energy (calories consumed-> time/distance walked).