Modelling energy transfers between systems to support energy knowledge in use

Abstract

School instruction is critical for helping students use energy as a lens for making sense of phenomena, however, students often struggle to see the usefulness of energy analysis for interpreting the world around them. One reason for this may be an overreliance on the idea of energy forms in introductory energy instruction, which may unintentionally suppress, rather than prompt, insights into how and why phenomena occur. We argue that an approach to energy instruction that emphasizes energy transfers between systems, and does not require the idea of energy forms, provides students with a more consistent and useful set of tools for interpreting phenomena. Such a perspective requires connecting the energy concept to the notion that fields, which mediate interaction-at-a-distance, are a real physical system that can transfer energyan idea that is rarely presented in middle school science. We outline an instructional approach in which middle school students learn to interpret phenomena by modelling energy transfers between systems of interacting objects and fields. We argue that this approach presents a more physically accurate picture of energy, helps align energy instruction across disciplines, and supports students in seeing the value of energy as a lens for making sense of phenomena.

Transferring Knowledge in a Knowledge-in-Use Task—Investigating the Role of Knowledge Organization

“…The analysis of the role of individual ideas supports the argument that energy transformation and energy transfer (for students in the respective units) are what Lee and Liu [53] call linking ideas, i.e., especially important ideas that serve as hubs in students' knowledge networks. While this role of energy transfer has been reported in knowledge-in-use assessments that require only little transfer [40], our findings extend this result to horizontal knowledge-in-use assessments and empirically demonstrate that also energy transformation can take this role in a learning environment that supports this.…”

“…More generally, demonstrating that students that have knowledge networks in which energy transfer is a central idea are more successful in regular knowledge-in-use assessments [40] and in a horizontal transfer task is an interesting finding because it supports the theoretical argument that energy transfer is a useful central idea within physics as well as across the sciences [53]. This draws on the larger question of whether ideas that are useful with a disciplinary frame are also useful when it comes to horizontal transfer.…”

Systems, transfer, and fields: Evaluating a new approach to energy instruction

“…The purpose of this article is to present our findings and discuss what they imply for middle school energy instruction. As the two instructional approaches contrasted in this study and the development of the assessments used in this study have been described in depth elsewhere (Fortus, Sutherland Adams, Krajcik, & Reiser, 2015;Kubsch, Nordine, Fortus, Neumann, & Krajcik, 2019;Neumann et al, 2018;Nordine et al, 2019), we revisit these issues relatively quickly and then move on to the design and results of the current study.…”

Supporting Students in Using Energy Ideas to Interpret Phenomena: The Role of an Energy Representation

“…Traditionally, introductory energy instruction in middle school focuses on forms of energy and transformations between those forms. Informed by the emphasis on energy transfers between systems in leading documents such as the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) and similar proposals in the literature (Brewe, 2011;Ellse, 1988;Swackhamer, 2005), we have developed a middle school unit that focuses on the transfer of energy between systems and conceptualizes energy as unitary, i.e., no forms of energy are introduced (for a detailed description of the approach, see Nordine, Fortus, Lehavi, Neumann, & Krajcik, 2018). Following the recommendations in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012), systems identify the part of the universe under investigation; thus systems can be single objects, fields, or collections of objects and/or fields.…”

“…Following the recommendations in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012), systems identify the part of the universe under investigation; thus systems can be single objects, fields, or collections of objects and/or fields. Fields are required in the systems-transfer approach to discuss phenomena that include interaction at a distance without resorting to transformations between energy forms (Nordine et al, 2018). In the unit, fields are not introduced as mathematical abstractions (as they typically are), but as systems that energy is transferred to or from in phenomena that involve interaction at a distance.…”