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 don’t think that there are really any new scientific ideas in the Energy and Change materials. It is a very different approach, of course, with all of the abstract pictures and new terms, like ‘things that just happen’ and ‘chemical springs’. But all of the ideas about energy are basically the same as the ones we’re already doing, so I don’t see that it would be too difficult to work in the activities into the schemes of work we already have.
B The ‘Second Law’ ideas in these materials are new, though I think that the science is not presented rigorously enough. Some of the explanations use language which is too informal and do not use proper scientific terms. The abstract pictures seem to be rather arbitrary, and don’t relate to conventional science.
C The ideas in the materials are very different from what we are already teaching, so I think it would be very difficult to incorporate the activities into the topics in our schemes of work. However, I think that the ideas they develop are very useful for pupils to have when it comes to understanding some of our existing topics. So, a good approach would be create a new topic that would just contain Energy and Change materials.
D I am quite enthusiastic about introducing this kind of ‘Second Law’ thinking into my teaching. I think that it would be possible to modify our existing schemes of work to integrate these ideas. I don’t think, however, that it would be possible to use the Energy and Change activities as they stand. I think that what I would do would be to adapt some of the ideas to fit in with our existing approach, and to include some abstract pictures in our current worksheets. I think that the pictures work well in illustrating the different ways in which energy can change from one form to another.
E I think that it should be quite easy to slot the activities into what we do already. There are lots of new ideas here, as well as new approaches, and I think that it will add variety to out schemes of work. However, what is going to be difficult, I think, is to use these ideas in the lessons that outside of the Energy and Change activities. In scientific terms, I think the ideas are wide-reaching, but in practice I think it is difficult to relate them to the content of school science.
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