CTS Guide: Concept of Energy, pp 168-169- Section IV Research Summaries

Concept of Energy

  • Several research studies have examined students’ concept of energy. Across these various studies, energy is commonly seen as (1) being associated with living objects, (2) a causal agent stored in certain objects, (3) being linked to force and motion or some type of overt action, (4) a fuel, (5) a fluid or something that flows, (6) an ingredient or a product, and (7) something that objects either need or have (Nordine 2016).

  • Liu and McKeough (2005) describe categorizations of ways students think about the concept of energy: (1) Students who have an anthropomorphic view see energy as something that is needed, exhibited, possessed, and consumed by living things, especially humans. (2) Students who have a depository view associate energy with things that store it such as fuels and batteries. (3) Students with an ingredient conception associate energy with materials that are dormant that suddenly release energy by some sort of trigger. (4) Students who have an activity conception associate energy with force, movement, or some type of action. (5) Students with a product conception think of energy as some type of by-product that is given off that is active and then fades or disappears. (6) Students with a functional concept of energy view energy as something that makes our lives more comfortable. (7) Students with a flow-transfer concept of energy associate energy with a fuel or electricity and see the need to conserve energy so that it doesn’t get used up.

  • Students’ meanings for energy, both before and after traditional instruction, are considerably different from the scientific meaning of energy (AAAS 2009).

  • Several studies have found students to have an anthropomorphic view of energy. Students tend to associate energy with living things—in particular, human beings—or with objects that were treated as if they had human characteristics. They suggest that energy is needed to live or be active, or they relate it to fitness and strength. Many students think of energy as a substance that is stored in some objects but not in others (Driver et al. 1994).

Learning Progression for Energy Ideas

  • A proposed learning progression for energy ideas shows that students seem to progress through stages: (1) they begin to distinguish different energy sources and forms of energy; (2) they develop an understanding of energy transfer along with energy degradation (e.g., heat dissipation); and (3) they are able to accept the abstract idea of energy conservation (Herrmann-Abell and DeBoer 2018).

  • In developing a learning progression, researchers found that students from grade 6 mostly obtain an understanding of energy forms and energy sources. In grade 8, students are able to demonstrate an understanding of energy transfer and transformation. However, it is not until grade 10, and only with some of the students in the study, that students are able to achieve a deeper understanding of energy conservation (Neuman et al. 2012).

Concept of Heat and Temperature

  • Distinguishing between concepts of heat and temperature is difficult for most children. They tend to view temperature as the mixture of hot and cold inside an object or simply the measure of the amount of thermal energy (often referred to as “heat energy” with younger children) possessed by an object with no distinction between the temperature of an object and its thermal energy. Studies show that students ages 10–16 tend to think there is no difference between heat and temperature (Driver et al. 1994).

  • Clough and Driver (1985) reported that students up to the age of 16 think of cold as “an entity which, like heat, has the properties of a material substance.” They do not necessarily think of hot and cold as part of the same continuum, but instead they think of cold as the opposite of heat.

  • Up to the age of 12, students are familiar with the term temperature and are able to use a thermometer to measure the temperature of objects or materials, but they have a fairly limited concept of the term. They rarely use temperature to describe the condition of an object (Erickson and Tiberghien 1985).

  • Watts and Gilbert (1985) found that it was common for 14- to 17-year-olds to associate heat only with warm and hot bodies.