The Physics Teaching Podcast

Tag: energy

  • Ways to talk about… Energy

    Ways to talk about… Energy

    In the last episode, Robin and Thomas were delighted to welcome Charles Tracy to talk about teaching energy at KS3. Charles generously agreed to come back for the next episode: energy at KS4

    Charles lays out the rationale for talking energy using the correct terms: using adverbial forms really helps to enshrine the principal that energy is not a tangible ‘thing’ rather a quantity that we observe is conserved before and after a separate process has occurred. Energy is stored kinetically, gravitationally, chemically and so forth (nuclear-ly is still problematic though).

    At KS4 the trick is to focus on the calculation. “If you’re not going to do a calculation, there’s no point talking energy”.

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  • Ways to Teach… Energy to 11 Year Olds

    Ways to Teach… Energy to 11 Year Olds

    There’s no two ways about it, the story we used to have on energy was bad. Inconsistency, incoherence, subjectivity: words to send a shiver down the spines of any scientist. Something had to change. The response from IOP was the ‘stores’ and ‘pathways’ model. This was championed by our podcast guest this evening. Thomas and Robin are honoured to welcome Charles Tracy (@charlesmtracy) of the IOP about how to introduce Energy to 11 year olds.

    Charles did so much to champion the new model of energy, tirelessly convincing educators, exam boards and textbook manufacturers that the new way was consistent and straightforward and gave students a much better account of this essentially abstract quantity.

    If you are introducing energy at KS3 you face an immediate challenges: energy is all about calculation and of course there are no calculations until KS4. That said, Charles tells us that we can think about energy conservation and talk about how much is in a particular store without calculating.

    An important consideration is defining your start and end points for your consideration of the transfer between stores. A bouncing ball may go through any number of transfers between stores over the course of a few bounces, but defining your ‘start’ as just before the ball is released and your ‘end point’ as just before it first bounces, means you can talk specifically about the specific transfer between the gravitational store and the kinetic store.

    To help you frame the start and end points Charles explains how it is important to have a calculation you could perform in your mind when designing an experiment. (eg. “How much kinetic energy does the ball have at the start and the end?”) You don’t need that for most year 11 year olds but it certainly comes in when you revisit Energy in the run up to GCSEs (Exams for 16 year olds in the UK).

    Listen close to Charles’s descriptions: the elegance and clarity of the model comes through. Charles has promised to return to talk energy at KS4 – we could listen to him all day!

    Charles wanted to add:

    It is helpful to look at phenomena using these three steps:

    1. Description – of what you observe and what is happening
    2. Explanation in terms of mechanisms and processes; changes that occur due to forces, differences in temperature, chemical reactions etc.
    3. Energy analysis – based on start and end points.

    Something I would draw out for part 3 is that you should not try to mirror or reproduce the mechanisms and processes in the energy analysis. The energy analysis performs a completely different task – based on solely the start and end points.

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    Teaching Secondary Physics 3rd Edition

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    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

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  • Uses for a Vacuum Cannon and Deconstruction of Energy

    Uses for a Vacuum Cannon and Deconstruction of Energy

    Happy New Year! Thomas and Robin reflect on some questions from the Dulwich IoP Physics Conference and are joined by Patrick Kaplo to talk about uses for the Vacuum Cannon and whether teaching just two energy stores is the way forward.

    Timestamps

    • New Year Resolutions @ 00:35
    • We’re going on tour! @ 03:51
    • Uses for the Vacuum Cannon @ 06:40
    • Dr Ben Still’s views on Energy @ 19:23

    Summary

    Happy New Year dear listener! Do you make New Year’s resolutions, then share them in the vain hope you will keep them up? Thomas asks Robin and Patrick to share theirs. Robin has been inspired by the podcast and Patrick is going to be more sharing. Thomas has set a low bar.

    The exciting news of the week is that Thomas, Robin and Thomas are heading to Boston USA to run a session at the NSTA conference. Entitled “Podcasting and Professionalism – A British Twist”. We plan to run a hands-on session and not wear bowler hats… we’ll look forward to seeing you in Boston in early April. If you aren’t in America then, why not let us know your favourite physics CPD event and we’ll see if we can make it along.

    Friend of the Podcast Jonathan Shaw loves his vacuum cannon but was wondering about how to use it to full-physics effect, and Patrick was more than happy to oblige. We got to five tips before we moved away from a soda-can-annihilation and in the end, we did answer Jonathan’s question.

    Dr Ben Still, author of Particle Physics Brick by Brick shared an interesting insight in to Energy when talking at the Conference – that there are really only two energy stores – motion and field shape. Thomas is delighted by this and puts it to Patrick and Robin for their opinion. What do you think? Should we tell our KS3 students that there is only movement and field?

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    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

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  • 19. The “New” Model of Energy

    19. The “New” Model of Energy

    Thomas and Robin feel the pain of Physics teachers all over the UK and attempt to get to grips with the new model of energy as promoted by the IoP. No more energy types, just energy stores that increase and decrease in magnitude and transfer processes that are allowed by the energy differences.

    Timestamps

    • Philae lander found @ 00:30
    • Shooting nuclear waste in to the Sun @ 2:00
    • What is energy? @ 3:25
    • Energy Stores and the IoP’s different model @ 5:34
    • Tom Norris talking explaining the “new” model of energy @ 7:59
    • Robin helps Thomas talk about energy @ 17:27
    • Thomas and Robin grapple with a roller-coaster example @ 24:31
    • Precision of language @ 29:53
    • Common language with Brian Lane @ 30:32
    • A new T-shirt @ 34:33
    • The elephant in the room @ 36:00
    • Vacuum Cannon back in stock soon @ 36:56

    Summary

    After discussing the recent spotting of the lost Philae Lander and the folly of firing nuclear waste in to outer Space Robin and Thomas finally (and after much procrastination) bite the bullet and talk about Energy. The IoP has been pushing a “new” model of electricity in an effort to standardise the way it is talked about. Thomas’ understanding of this at the start of the episode is, to say the least, hazy. Robin talks him through it with the help of Tom Norris (from Episode 10: Ways to teach… Electricity). Moving away from “types of energy” to energy as the currency of force interactions that lets things happen does seem more sensible, but it is quite a change in thinking. W. Brian Lane, a professor from the USA mulls over his response to a student from the UK explaining energy with the new model before Thomas announces that there is a new t-shirt design and the vacuum cannon will soon be back in stock.

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    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

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  • 19.1 “New” Energy Model ~ Extended Interview with Tom Norris

    19.1 “New” Energy Model ~ Extended Interview with Tom Norris

    20 minutes of chat with Tom including him going in to more detail about the “New” model of energy.

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    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

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