One of my biggest concerns with NGSS is that there is a lot of learning about energy. Energy is dangerous in science ed. bc it has frequently been used to avoid discussion and thinking. I'm going to talk about why that is and what can be done to mitigate this. /1
Energy is a mathematical shortcut to solve physics problems faster. The laws of motion result in some very convenient equations that make problem solving much easier. These equations are often conserved allowing us to make simpler calculations. /2
There is nothing that can be explained using energy that cannot be explained using position, motion, forces, etc. but often explaining using energy is much easier and with much less understanding/thinking required. /3
So a good rule of thumb is this, if you the teacher can explain something using energy but can't give an explanation without it, you are lacking some understanding of the process and your students will also likely have some incomplete constructs. /4
There is a great story about a scientist who was asked to review science textbooks and in 1 of them a picture of a wind up toy asked what makes the toy move? The next page said "Energy makes it go". /5
This is problematic for many reasons and the scientist discussed some of these issues such as what if a student said "I don't believe you", but the key point here is that energy is being used to avoid the quality discussions that could happen about how this toy works. /6
And avoiding energy in science can be incredibly challenging, but as you move through the year next year try really hard to find some spots where energy is used and think about what would this topic look like without using energy? It's challenging, but that's a good thing! /7
For the record, momentum is very similar to energy in that it is a mathematically derived tool that we often use to explain due to convenience. Momentum greatly simplifies down calculations about collisions but the collision can always be explained/calculated w/out momentum /8
Here's a post about energy but I'd love to get into some specific scenarios of how can this topic be taught without using energy. ibchemmilam.blogspot.com/2017/05/teach-… This is why the NGSS often link energy with other components (models, force, motion...) /9
How would you explain that when baking soda and vinegar are mixed and react that the products are colder than the original reactants without using energy or energy terms (exothermic, endothermic, heat, etc.)? /10
