Exploring Potential Learning Trajectories for the Energy Concept in Middle School

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Energy is a critical concept in every branch of science, yet relatively little is known about how to best build students conceptions of energy over time so that their understanding becomes more integrated and more useful for making sense of phenomena. Some of the most pressing social and environmental issues that face the nation (e.g., energy conservation, climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource economics) are fundamentally related to energy. Recent work has shown that effective K-12 energy instruction can play a crucial role in helping students develop an understanding of energy that is scientifically accurate, useful for interpreting everyday events and valuable for solving problems, but the lasting impact of different instructional approaches is not well understood. The project investigates three promising approaches to energy instruction in an effort to understand how each affects middle school student understanding of energy and the ability to engage in subsequent energy-related learning. To evaluate alternative approaches to energy instruction, two research questions are investigated: (1) How do three different approaches to teaching energy lead to different trajectories in the development of students' understanding? and (2) How can metrics be designed to track the development of students' knowledge of energy during middle school? The first research question is addressed by researching the impacts of three instructional units using different instructional approaches, and gathering data (student interviews, classroom observations, and written assessments and artifacts) intended to reveal differences amongst the approaches. Middle school teachers will teach each of the three units. To assess the reliability of results and track students over time, the study includes two cohorts of students, separated by a year. The second research question will be addressed through the development of new instructional metrics in order to track student development across time. Unlike assessments that reveal whether students can recall or directly apply key ideas about energy, the new metrics will be designed to track whether and how students connect energy ideas as they reason in new contexts. Further, the assessments will be designed to investigate the impact of student sense of self-efficacy on the ability to use energy concepts effectively and in new settings. The research will contribute to understanding of how to best teach middle school students about energy and how new assessments can be developed that focus on the types of learning that will likely set the stage for productive future learning and citizenship.