Energy — How Things Work | EVS Grade 5 CBSE

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Six ideas about energy

Energy makes everything work. Tap each term to see where it comes from and how we use it well.

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The three big ideas

Energy is what makes things work, move, glow and heat up. The biggest source is the Sun, which gives light and warmth and helps plants grow.
The wind turns windmills, flowing water turns wheels and makes electricity, and fuels like wood, coal and gas burn to give heat. Even our bodies need energy — and we get it from food.
Some sources, like the Sun and wind, never run out; others, like coal and petrol, will one day finish, so we must not waste them.

Everyday example. List the kinds of energy used in your home before 9 in the morning.

The Sun lights your room, gas cooks breakfast, electricity runs the fan, and food gives you energy to walk to school — four kinds of energy already!

Simple machines are clever tools that make a hard job easy. A lever, like a seesaw or a bottle-opener, helps move things. A wheel lets carts and cycles roll smoothly.
A pulley helps you draw a heavy bucket of water up from a well. An inclined plane (a ramp) makes it easier to push a load up than to lift it straight, and a screw holds things tightly.
These machines do not make energy — they just make our effort go further.

Common mix-up: A simple machine does not create energy on its own. You still have to push or pull — the machine only makes the job easier.

Electricity is very useful but can be dangerous. Never touch switches or plugs with wet hands, never poke fingers or metal into a socket, and stay far from broken or hanging wires — tell an adult at once.
To save energy: switch off lights, fans and the TV when you leave a room, open the curtains to use daylight, and use energy-saving (LED) bulbs.
Saving energy saves money and keeps the air cleaner.

Everyday example. You are the last person to leave the classroom at lunchtime. What should you do?

Switch off the lights and fans. If a whole school does this every day, it saves a huge amount of electricity.

Where you'll see it

Energy in everyday life

Drawing water from a well

A pulley over a well turns a heavy downward pull into an easy lift — a simple machine doing real, everyday work.

The off switch

Switching off fans and lights in empty rooms is the easiest way every family can save energy and money.

Solar power

Solar panels on rooftops turn free sunlight into electricity — clean energy that never runs out.

Check yourself

Competency quiz

A friendly set of questions — mostly multiple-choice with an assertion–reason and a case study — to check that you can use these ideas, not just remember them.

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