“Maybe there is a different type of energy at play” and “I think the energy goes somewhere” were suggestions students offered to answer this question.   The 7th graders have been studying energy, specifically, energy transformation and what makes an object go.  This week they asked the question, “What makes an object stop?”  For two days, I refused to tell students the answer.  And, the pay-off of doing so was tremendous.  The excitement was palpable as they analyzed a racquetball/basketball system to try to answer this question and figured out that energy can be transferred from one object to another.   The sense of pride and achievement I saw in each of them was telling.  When students have ownership in their learning they not only learn the content but they learn about the power within themselves.