Assessing for shifts in learner's energy reasoning strategies

Abstract

Abstract:The Energy Project is a research effort aimed at increasing learner engagement with energy concepts in K-12 classrooms. We work closely with elementary and secondary science teachers, offering professional development opportunities in which teachers use energy tracking strategies to make sense of energy conservation in a wide range of complex physical phenomena. We value the construction and refinement of flexible, rigorous and intuitive energy models which will empower learners to make sense of phenomena and resources that they care about in the real world. Therefore, both in instruction and assessment we prioritize energy reasoning strategies over static lists of energy facts or correct explanations. In this paper we share preliminary evidence of significant shifts in teacher's constructive use of diagrams and rigorous attention to energy tracking when confronted with a novel energy scenario. We believe that this study has methodological implications for future research on shifts in energy understanding.

University student conceptual resources for understanding energy

“…This practice might be promoted by using energy tracking representations such as those described in the literature [120,129,134,135], or simply by asking students to describe energy transfers and transformations as we did in our free body diagram and story questions. …”

“…Literature on students' (and teachers') ideas about energy implies several ways in which instructors might build on this conceptual resource. For example, representations for tracking energy through a system [120,129,134,135] may encourage students to draw on this resource in order to determine when and where energy transfers and transformations occur. Energy bar graphs [90,114] enforce the identification of forms of energy at particular instants; pairing such representations with requests for evidence for the presence of each form of energy may also encourage students to associate forms with indicators.…”

“…Likewise, describing the flow of energy through a sequence of objects and instants may be a first step to accounting for all of the energy transfers and transformations that occur during some process. By tracking the energy present at multiple instants, students are (perhaps implicitly) acknowledging that energy "moves" through different locations and manifestations, which is an important part of the conservation principle [107,[113][114][115]129]. FIG.…”

“…Daane [1,124] argues that foregrounding the second law of thermodynamics in instruction can act as a bridge between learners' everyday ideas about energy and the scientific concept of energy (energy is conserved). Other researchers have investigated the resources afforded by particular representations of energy transfers and transformations [120,129].…”