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

David Fortus,Knut Neumann,Joseph Krajcik,Marcus Kubsch,Jeffrey Nordine

doi:10.1007/s10763-019-10035-y

Abstract

In the sciences, energy is an important idea to get insight into phenomena, as energy can help to reveal hidden systems and processes. However, students commonly struggle to use energy ideas to interpret and explain phenomena. To support students in using energy ideas to interpret and explain phenomena, a range of different graphical representations are commonly used. However, there is little empirical research regarding whether and how these representations actually support students’ ability to use energy ideas. Building on common ways of representing energy transfer, we address this issue by exploring whether, and if so how, a specific representation called the energy transfer model (ETM) supports middle school students’ interpretation of phenomena using the idea of energy transfer. We conducted an interview study with N = 30 8th grade students in a quasi-experimental setting and used qualitative content analysis to investigate student answers. We found evidence that students who construct an ETM when making sense of phenomena consider the role of energy transfers between systems more comprehensively, i.e., they reason about hidden processes and systems to a larger extent than students who do not construct an ETM.

Highlights

Energy and RepresentationsEnergy is inherently abstract as it cannot be directly observed or measured
If so how, a specific representation – the energy transfer model (ETM) – that emphasizes the unitary nature of energy instead of forms supports middle school students in using energy ideas to make sense of phenomena in a physical science context
We investigated how constructing a specific representation supports students in applying the systems-transfer perspective on energy to interpret phenomena

Summary

Introduction

Energy and RepresentationsEnergy is inherently abstract as it cannot be directly observed or measured. When scientists use energy ideas to interpret phenomena, they often use representational tools such as mathematical formulas or Sankey diagrams (Ainsworth, Prain, & Tytler, 2011) When scientists construct such a representation, the specific affordances of the representation can constrain thinking and channel attention in helpful ways. The rules of algebra constrain thinking as they only allow for specific manipulations, and attention is channeled towards the variables in the formula and away from surface features such as the color of the ball. Such expert representations are not accessible in middle school or lower grades when students lack the mathematical foundations. Other representations such as energy chains (Papadouris & Constantinou, 2016) or pie charts are introduced (see Gray et al (2019) and Scherr, Close, McKagan, and Vokos (2012)

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