4.Main Content
Energy
Introduction
Energy is one of the unifying concepts of science and a main theme that runs throughout the teaching of physics. It occurs everywhere, and can't be avoided.
Energy is a difficult topic to teach, and to understand, because the very concept is abstract. It requires lots of discussion with students about physical observations and their interpretation. We begin with simple experiments that introduce the language of energy, and go on to include more advanced topics such as the energy shared amongst the particles of matter - the internal energy in hot objects, often called 'heat'.
Teaching notes for these experiments are supplemented by many Guidance pages, which explain scientific concepts and discuss key teaching issues. The general approach that we adopt is to identify 'energy stores' and 'carriers' or 'pathways' which transfer energy between these stores.
Acknowledgement
For the Energy topic, we are very grateful to the following for their advice:
Richard Boohan
Ian Lawrence
Robin Millar
Jon Ogborn
Image courtesy of the It is Canada website.
Experiment collections
- Introducing energy
- Making Energy Real: Using the SEP Energymeter
- Examples of energy going from one thing to another
- Measuring energy transfers
- The principle of conservation of energy
- Power
- Thermal energy
- Thermal transfers
Guidance
- Energy: common knowledge, hard concept
- Helpful language for energy talk
- Doing energy sums
- Measuring energy with the SEP Energymeter
- Measuring energy transfers
- The principle of conservation of energy
- Solving problems – force or energy?
- Energy sources (generating electricity)
- What’s wrong with ‘forms of energy’?
- Does energy make things happen?
- Heat and temperature
- Fundamentals
- ‘Work’
Updated 17 Mar 2009
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