Science Teacher Training
in an Information Society
Teaching about energy
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Science Teacher Training
in an Information Society |
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Workshop 1
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StoriesA I have now adopted the approach taken in the National Curriculum, and all of my teaching about energy is in terms of energy transfer. I teach pupils that there are six different kinds of energy, and in an energy change, energy is transferred from one kind to another. I think that this is a helpful way of looking at things. I think it is probably better to say that chemical energy is transferred into heat energy than to say that chemical energy is transformed into heat energy.
B I think that talking about transfers of energy is probably more scientifically correct than talking about forms of energy, but in fact I continue to use the ‘forms of energy’ approach. I don’t actually use the terms ‘forms of energy’ and ‘energy transformation’, but I do teach pupils about ‘heat energy’ and ‘chemical energy’ and so on, and get them to work out energy change diagrams.
C I think that from the scientific point of view, the ‘transfer’ approach has problems. It encourages thinking about energy as a sort of substance, and I don’t think that this is helpful. Also, I think that the idea that electrical currents can carry energy does not sound right. It suggests a sense of purpose, which is misleading. Forms of energy make sense as a way of introducing energy because later on we use different formulae for different forms of energy. Also it is easier to talk about forms of energy when we talk about energy being degraded.
D I think that both ways of talking are valid. If you are teaching about conduction, for example, and how heat travels from hot to cold, then energy transfer is a good way of explaining it. Energy transfer is also a good way of thinking about how energy can become less useful as it spreads out and becomes dissipated in the surroundings. However, if you are talking about a chemical change or a change of state, then forms of energy are easier to use in an explanation. So in the classroom I just use what seems to be most appropriate at the time.
E I think that there are problems with both of the approaches. I don’t think that forms of energy are helpful, because different books and different people use different systems. In one book, you might read just about ‘chemical energy’ whereas in another they might talk about different kinds of chemical energy like food energy and fuel energy. This is very confusing. But I don’t think that thinking of energy as ‘just one kind of stuff’ helps either because I think it is important to distinguish two fundamental kinds of energy – kinetic and potential – because fundamentally everything can be seen in these terms. However, I find it difficult to see how to use these ideas in my teaching.
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