Strategies to Teach Energy-Related Concepts to Elementary-School Students Through Visual Activities and Laboratory Experiments

Abstract

A summer course was held during the first week of July 2019 for 30 youngsters (aged 8 to 12) to promote their (perhaps natural) curiosity for science through STEM experiences. The 5-day summer course was held at different facilities, including those described along this paper hosted by Universitat Politècnica de València (València, Spain). Several activities were developed to allow young students to discover concepts related to energy types and energy transfer processes through an active manipulation of laboratory assemblies. In this way, students' motivation is enhanced in an intuitive way and their attention and interest may be maintained. Finally, it is also reported some issues faced during these energy-related experiments and how they may be solved in the future.