Teaching "Energy Transformation" through open inquiry: The case of the Rolling Cylinders

Abstract

Energy is one of the most complex yet central concepts taught in schools and is featured in the Australian Science Curriculum, as one of the six key organising ideas (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2015). The literature portrays a multitude of complications associated with teaching energy (see Millar, 2005 for a discussion of major issues). From our perspective, a key factor that contributes to the complexity of teaching and learning about energy is the early introduction of this concept, at the primary level. This creates a situation where primary teachers need to devise approaches to teaching energy that are essentially qualitative, thus matching the developmental needs of their students, but without oversimplifying the essential quantitative nature of the concept (Heron, Michelini, & Stefanel, 2009). In junior secondary, energy is developed further extending into energy transfers and gradually into the quantitative.