Update on Energy

In my ongoing love-hate relationship with the concept of energy, I returned to the subject during a CPD session I ran today.

The session was for Primary teachers who have little, or no, science background.  The aim of the whole course (of which the session is but a small part) is to enable the teachers to develop a confident understanding of science up to KS3 level.  They will then be better able to support their pupils, and colleagues with primary science.

I had run a similar session before, but having read Millar's latest paper on energy, I decided that I would change things around slightly this time.

The structure was:
Introduction - what is Energy?
Answer - we're not entirely sure, but we know that it's conserved and we can do some interesting sums with it.  (The subplot of this is that as science teachers we/they don't have to know all the answers - suggested they use a question wall where they can 'park' questions).

Part 1: Food labels
We started by looking at lots food labels to get a feel for the energy contained in different foods.  We talked about the sort of sums that we could do with that information and also made diet and healthy living links.  We starting looking at 2000 kcal for an adult, and how much food was required to make that up.  We also looked at the energy density of different food types - always a bit of a shock.

(If I'd had more time, I would have burnt some food at this point.)

Food as a fuel and the linked to other types of fuel and energy resources.
This was a helpful next step, and took the flow of the session from the personal to the wider world.  I used one of the ASE Upd8 activities to look at some of the issues relating to the type of fuel to use in cars.  We then progressed to ideas about renewable and non-renewable fuels, which led naturally into David MacKay's thesis that we need to use numbers, not adjectives, to talk about consumption and generation of electricity/energy.

Part 2: how much is a joule.

An Energy Ladder

I used an 'energy ladder' to start thinking about the relative sizes of different energy stores.  This led to a sobering discussion of how much exercise we have to do to balance out the energy we receive from food.  Our unit of comparison was that it required approximately 1J to lift an apple up by 1 metre.

Part 3: Energy stores and energy stories
I then introduced the idea of energy stores, using those stores defined by the IOP in their SPT materials.  Each of these stores can be justified because there is an interesting calculation that we can carry out related to each of them - though not at KS3, or even KS4 in some cases.  Using the 'orange liquid model' of energy we looked at the energy stories of some different objects, making sure that we  carefully chose our start and end point, and didn't worry about what happened before or after that.  We also discussed the usefulness and limitations of the model.

Plenary:Telling their own energy stories.
Using different toys/items the teachers told the energy stories - choosing the start and finish points and talking about which energy stores were emptying and which were filling, and how the energy shifted between the places.


Reflections: looking at the overall structure of the session I think that it works well as it provided a coherent overarching story to the progression of energy ideas.  We did it in a short space of time, but it could easily be done as a curriculum topic.  The progression of ideas followed nicely from upper KS2 to KS3, and would extend to KS4 and the introduction of sums to calculate energy (kinetic, gravitational potential, specific heat capacity) as well as supporting the big picture of Energy post-16.

Measuring gravity

One of the privileges of working where I do, is that I get the chance to listen to talks/presentations by people who are influential in education.

A while back I was at such a talk, and the speaker was describing an outstanding A-level Physics lesson he had seen. During the lesson the students were split into groups, and each group was using a different method to calculate a value for acceleration due to gravity, g. At the end of the lesson, they discussed all their different values and the teacher helped them to think about the importance of accuracy, repeatability and 'fair testing' that the students had learnt about for many years. However, the need to compare their different values of 'g' meant that they really started to understand the importance of such experimental details, as well as beginning to think about error analysis.


That set me wondering. How many ways are there to measure g that could be done by your average A-level class?

So here are the ones that I have found

1. Measuring the period of a pendulum
2. g by freefall using a timer (apparatus can be purchased from most educational suppliers)
3. g by freefall using lightgates
4. g by freefall using tickertape and a tickertape timer (word doc)
5. g ball drop (using a normal ball and timers, using g-ball)
6. Jump up popper and tracker or audacity
7. Dropping small masses and recording the sound of them hitting the floor. (I'm in the process of writing a method for this.)
8. Atwoods machine (never actually seen this done)
9. Galileo's ramp

There are more than I thought that there would be.  Some of these are variations on a theme, but some of them are quite different.  There's certainly a lot of scope to discuss the accuracy of the different methods, as I suspect that some will give wildly different values of g.
      
You could also use simulations as well, increasing the number of possible activities or investigations.  The following are all from PhET
Pendulum lab
Mass on a spring
Ramp: Forces and motion

Are there any methods not on here that you use? Do let me know.


Additional reading: Improving science in colleges, Ofsted 2012 (pdf)

Teaching Energy

I've been thinking about energy a lot recently.  In part it's because I've been working on a course for primary school teachers, so I've had to really think what we teach at KS3 and KS4, and why.

" One reason for the difficulty in deciding what to say about energy at school level is that the scientific idea of energy is very abstract.  It is, for example, impossible to say in simple language what energy is, or means.  Another problem is that the word ‘energy’ has entered everyday discourse, with a meaning that is related to, but very different from, the scientific one. " Millar, Energy Summit Paper, 2012

Current KS3 Energy.

At KS3, energy is mostly naming of parts:

• types of energy;
• fuel sources;
• renewable and non-renewable sources.

Look on the TES website and there are numerous resources which involve kids naming resources, match energy types, say how energy is being transformed etc.

Why are we interested in energy?

In most sciences, the reason that we are interested in energy is to do calculations.  The purpose of energy is to do sums (or quantative calculations). 

e.g in Chemistry to work out which is the most favourable reaction, in biology as calories, in physics to calculate efficiencies. 

That doesn't mean that we have to introduce equations early on.  Most children will be familiar with the idea of fuels, either fossil fuels or food.  That can be a good place to start a discussion of energy and the idea of use and conservation of energy

The KS3 model that many people use at the minute doesn't allow us to focus on the importance calculations in energy. It suggests that there are different types of energy, that can be found in different places. Energy is used to explain things, to give mechanisms, but energy in itself doesn't make good explanations.

It isn't that you have to be hung up on the language (should it be transform, transfer etc) but what is the underlying model and how useful is it. And I think a good starting point is...

Energy is Energy is Energy.

Orange liquid! Or a quasi-material entity.

Institute of Physics model of energy as an 'orange liquid'.

The IOP model, developed by Lawrence, suggest that we limit how we think of energy to those situations where we can (or want to) do calculations - maybe not at KS4 but later. We think of energy as being stored and shifted.

kinetic, gravity, thermal, nuclear, chemical, vibration, elastic, electro-magnetic

e.g

• lifting an object. Chemical store is emptied, and gravitational store is filled. (note that not interested in intermediate motion as it doesn't affect the final energy store)
• rolling an object down a slope to the bottom.  Gravitational potential store is emptied and thermal stores (of slope, of pen) increased.
• Boiling water in kettle. Chemical store (from coal/gas power station) is emptied. Thermal store of water increased, thermal store of air increased, thermal store of kettle increased. 

The last example shows how we can then go on to build Sankey diagrams to consider efficiency.

So for example, using a pull-back car.  
My starting situation is just after I have pulled back the car.  An elastic energy store has been filled. 

At the end of it's motion, the elastic energy store has been emptied.  But where has that energy gone?

Mostly, it's heated up things - the desk, the tyres, the surroundings.  Some thermal energy stores have been filled.

Advantages: 

• emphasises the continuous nature of energy;
• provides reasons for choosing stores (ot just naming for the sake of it);
• visually appealing and can easily show sankey diagrams
• Don't have to consider intermediate chains of energy changes (which may be different depending on the detail in which you want to consider the problem in);
• allows a development of the concept through Key stages.
• Doesn't use energy as an explanation for changes

Disadvantages 
There are two main areas - the disadvantages of the model as a physical representation, and the perceived practical disadvantages:

• Energy is a substance that is passed from object to object.
• How to treat sound and light (and electrical energy)
• doesn't match current textbooks and concern that examiners may not credit this version of energy ideas 

The third one is less of an issue now that KS3 SATs have gone. KS4 examiners will generally ask questions involving calculations (KE, GPE and efficiency) or about wasted energy. Given what candidates write at GCSE, it is unlikely that there will be problems with terminology.

Possibly the biggest stumbling block is that of light and sound. In the 'orange liquid' model light and sound are not energy stores. Rather, they are ways in which energy is shifted from place to place, ways in which stores are emptied or filled. 

In addition to energy stores the model contains pathways through which energy is shifted. 

• Heating by particles
• Electrical working
• Mechanical working
• Heating by radiation (including EM and physically e.g. via sound)

Thus, light and sound are ways of shifting energy, rather than energy stores themselves.

Which is logically consistent, but not how students and teachers usually think of them.  However, putting aside quantum definitions of the energy of a photon, we can't store light or sound. They are both transient objects. We do however think about light in terms of rate of energy transfer (watts or joules/sec).

Part of the problem is that we tend to want to 'daisy chain' links of energy transfer, worrying about where the energy is at every point between the start and end.  So we'll conventionally talk about the "chemical energy in the battery being transferred/transformed to electrical energy in the wires, and then light energy from the bulb, and then ...."  But where should we stop?  Should we consider the light as it reaches our eyes, or the electrical impulses that are generated in the cells on the retina, or what about at the synapses? None or these are particularly useful. 

Far better to stick to things we can measure.  Why are we interested in the bulb?  Often because we want to know how much energy per second it uses - it's power, not where the energy has gone.

To summarise:

• Energy is tricky to teach well.
• There are different models that can be used, but they all have advantages and disadvantages.
• Examples where we can do calculations are very useful - that is often why we're interested in energy after all.
• If' you're going to do an 'energy circus' choose wisely.  Ask students to think about specific start points and end points, and don't worry about anything in between those points, or that happens afterwards.  

Useful reading material: 

Robin Millar's Towards a research-informed teaching sequence for Energy, including a suggested teaching sequence. I would strongly recommend that you read this paper - it very clearly sets out some of the issues, and describes a way forward.  
If I was designing my KS3/KS4 curriculum, I would use this paper - and work with my feeder primary schools to get them to use his ideas too!

IOP Supporting Physics Teaching materials Energy 11-14. Useful self-study materials which outline the 'orange liquid' model, as well as suggesting teaching activities and discussing possible issues.  

Energy Summit: Developing a framework for the teaching and learning of energy. Assorted papers.

R.Millar Teaching about energy. 

You could also discuss this further on TalkPhysics

Have your say ... again.

So, it would appear that, to some extent, Mr Gove has listened to the myriad voices ranged against his EBC proposals.  Whilst we are still waiting for the dust to settle to see what actually has been lost and gained, there are two consultations that need to be done.

Consultation on Draft National Curriculum

Consultation on Secondary School Accountability

Just as I wrote when the consultation on the EBCs was announced "If teachers (and others actually involved in Education) don't respond to the consultation, then the DfE will have no evidence of the depth of feeling about the changes.  It's easy to send out disparaging tweets ... on twitter, but does take a bit of time to respond to the consultation.  If we care about education, we should be willing to put time in to making our views known."

I'm re-posting my suggestion for an activity that could be used in staff meetings to help groups of teachers respond to the consultations.

It would take about 1 hour to do for each consultation, but the time could be shortened if needed. 

Step 1: What does the consultation say? 

Split the participants into groups of (of between 4 and 8) and give each group a copy of the appropriate consultation document (printed onto single sided A4 paper) and a sheet of flip chart paper which had been split into 8 pieces.

Each member of the group is given sections of the consultation to read and then summarise on the flip chart pieces.  Each section had to be summarised on a separate piece of paper.

For the NC consultation I suggest the following sections are used:

• Section 1 - Background
• Section 6 - Aims of the National curriculum
• Section 7 - Programme of Study and Attainment targets (a big section!)
• Section 8 - ICT
• Section 9 - Equalities
• Section 10 - View of parents (or rather, should parents know what their children are learning at each stage of the NC)
• Section 11 - Implementation
• Section 12 - Phasing and disapplication

The other sections are mainly procedural - although section 2 is about the structure of the NC.

For the Accountability consultation more of the sections are relevant, but sections are generally shorter.  I suggest sections 2 - 13 will need to be read, but these can be shared out amongst the group so that everyone has an approximately equal amount of reading to do.

It should take about 15 minutes to read and summarise each participant section of the document.

Step 2: Putting it all together

Each member of the group uses their flipchart piece to summarise what they have read and learnt.  This will take about 20 minutes.  It would be helpful if the group didn’t discuss what they heard at this point.
 In this way the flipchart paper is rebuilt to provide an overview of the consultation as a whole. 

The group can now discuss the consultation, say what they thought, and suggest other possibilities, as well as share ideas between groups.  This could take quite a while depending on how vocal people are.

Step 3: Answering the questions

Helpfully, the Department for Education has provided a word document for responses (NC consultation, Accountability consultation).  Print these out onto A3 sheets of paper and put them around the room in numerical order.

The teachers can then wandered around, writing their answers and thoughts to the questions, discussing further with each other as they did so.  They don’t have to respond to every question – just those you’ve got an opinion about.

At the end of the session, collate the answers into the word document and email it to participants.  That way, when they answer the consultation they have got a starting point to work from.

This process can be adapted depending on how many people you have, or how much time you have. However, it is very important that teachers give their views on these proposals, and I hope that this simple activity will help you to do that by 16th April (NC) and 1st May (Accountability) .

It's what you measure that counts.

Asking which came first, the chicken or the egg is a question which has long entertained philosophers and scientists.

Likewise, asking which should come first, the curriculum or the assessment model, has provided much thought for educationalists.

This question has been brought to my mind once more by a number of events and twitter conversations. The first is the imminent closure of both the government consultation on the EBC, and the heads roundtable consultation on the curriclum. Both of which close for business on 10th December. If you haven't responded to the government consultation then you really should. The documents are on their website.  You might also like to compare the Heads Roundtable consultation document, and reply to that. Again, details are on their website.

There is a feeling amongst many educators that providing an excellent curriculum is where we should start in designing education. If we get the curriculum right, then everything else will follow.

As someone who is, and has been, involved in both the business of examining and in curriculum design I think that this is not the best place to start.  Inevitably the curriculum narrows (or expands) to what is measured.

One only has to think of the 5A*-C (inc English and Maths) which led to the rise of equivalent qualifications, early and regular entry to boost numbers. Or the reported reduction in some arts subjects with the introduction of the Ebacc as a performance measure.

Equally, removing science from KS2 tests did not always allow science to break free of the shackles of a stifling curriculum, instead it meant that science lost prominence in many primary schools and focus was given to English and Maths. Or at KS3, the removal of SATS wasn't always used by schools to develop innovative and engaging curriculum experiences for students. Rather, it allowed them to start KS4 a year early, even to the extent of entering stusents in module tests at the end of year Assessment (and the accountability linked to it) drives the curriculum.  To be fair, some schools did take advantage of the freedom the loss of exams at the end of year 9 gave them and created a new curriculum for their students.

I think that we need to think about what, and how, we are going to assess and use that to plan the curriculum.  This is 'Backwards Design' as outlined by Grant and Wiggins. (Thanks to @damianainscough for the link.)

In brief, we should decide what students should know, understand and be able to do. This then allows us to outline how students can 'show that they know', and only then should we plan the learning episodes that students will experience.  This is the opposite way round that learning is sometimes planned, often with a 'Oh, I know a really good activity we could do' sort of way.

To see how this might look in practice, the York Science project is currently attempting to design a KS3 curriculum based on the backward design principle, and I would encourage schools to get involved with that project.  

For those designing the EBCs (even though the consultation hasn't finished yet) and those who will produce specifications based on the EBCs, then it is important that they think about how the materials they are producing will be assessed. 

For those designing their schemes of work/learning then it is important to think about what you expect the students to know at the end of the scheme, how can they show this (and it doesn't have to be written - see 200 ways for some great alternative ideas), and only then, what are you going to teach to get the students to the end point.

The Science Teacher's Song book.

During #asechat last night the topic of songs to use in science lessons came up... well, ok, I brought it up.

I loved using songs during lessons (and now on CPD courses) often at the beginning to set the scene as the learners arrive or at the end when they're reviewing/reflecting on their learning.

Other educators obviously felt the same, and suggestions came in so I thought I'd collect some here.  The IOP PTNC email list also discussed songs to use in lessons a while ago - as you can see, Physicists have obviously given the topic some considerable thought.

If you have any other suggestions, let me know and I'll add them in.

Biology
Reproduction -  Grease 2
Let's talk about sex - Salt n Peppa
The Circle of Life - The Lion King
Breathe - Prodigy
Dry bones (the knee bones connected to...) 
The drugs don't work - The Verve
Food, glorious food - Oliver

Chemistry
The Elements Song - Tom Lehrer (to be played at every opportunity)
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul (Electrolysis)
Mole day music video http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Mole-Day-Music-Video-from-the-Virtual-School-6297022/

Physics
Under Pressure - Queen
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul (electrostatics, or magnetism)
Collide - Leona Lewis
Defying Gravity - Wicked

Good Vibrations - Beach Boys 

Swing Low Sweet Chariot 

You spin me right round - Dead or Alive

Spinning around –  Kylie

Galaxy Song 

Nine million bicycles - Katie Melua 

Adjusted bicycle version! Correct Physics 

It’s electricifying - John Travolta 

Lightning – The Wanted 

Can u feel the force - The Real Thing

Supernova – Oasis Oasis

Supermassive black hole - Twilight 

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas - Dottie Evans 

Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong 

Chain Reaction – Diana Ross 

Atomic – Blondie

Quark song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kXkWXSXRA

Danger High Voltage - Electric Six 

I've got the power - Snap! 

Sound of da police - KRS One 

He ain't heavy he's my brother - The Hollies (for gravity) 

Ray of Light - Madonna 

Spectrum - Florence and the Machine 

Moment like this - Leona Lewis 

Perfect moment - Martine McCutcheon 

Magic moments - Perry Como

Speed and Velocity - They might be Giants  

Why Does the Sun Shine? - They Might Be Giants

Somewhere over the rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo Ole   Judy Garland

Speed of light – Coldplay 

Our Velocity - Maximo Park
Apply some pressure - Maximo Park
Starlight - Muse
Black hole sun - Soundgarden
Strange Charm - Hank Green
Large Hadron Rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

The Particle Physics song (Higgs, Higgs glorious Higgs)


And good bands:
Astrocapella http://www.astrocappella.com/songs.shtml
They might be Giants 'Here comes science'
Kraftwerk

They want to know what you think ... I think.

We are currently about halfway through the Department for Education's consultation on the reform of the KS4 examination system.

Have you responded yet?

Lots of teachers that I've spoken to haven't read, much less responded, to the consultation.  The frenetic pace of the first half-term being one reason.  However, many teachers said that they hadn't responded because they didn't think they'd be listened to, so it would be a waste of time.

I can sympathise with this view.  Reading through the consultation questions it feels a little like we're being asked 'Which stick would you like me to hit you with - the ash or the oak?' rather than, 'Should I hit you?'

But, and it is a big but, if teachers (and others actually involved in Education) don't respond to the consultation, then the DfE will have no evidence of the depth of feeling about the changes.  It's easy to send out disparaging tweets about the EBCs (and other policies) on twitter, but does take a bit of time to respond to the consultation.  If we care about education, we should be willing to put time in to making our views known.  If we want students to have periodic tables, calculators or set texts in their exams we need to say so.   

I'm not going to comment on specific questions, but others have blogged about them, and about the EBCs in general.  See for example, from an English teacher's point of view by @panderson1979, or from a Headteacher's view from @johntomsett

On a recent course we looked at the consultation documents and discussed the questions.  To do this we made use of a cooperative learning activity that could be useful for departments to carry out in order to assist their teachers to respond to the consultation.  It would take about 1 hour to do well, but the time could be shortened if needed. 

Step 1: What does the consultation say? 

The participants on the course were split into groups of 5 and each group was given a copy of the 19 page consultation document (printed onto single sided A4 paper) and a sheet of flip chart paper which had been split into 8 pieces.

Each member of the group was given sections of the consultation to read and then summarise on the flip chart pieces.  The list shows who was asked to read what.  Each section had to be summarised on separate pieces of paper.

1. 2 pieces of paper for sections 2 + 3
2. 2 pieces for sections 4 + 8
3. 1 piece for section 5.1 - 5.13
4. 1 piece for section 5.14 - 5.25
5. 2 pieces for sections 6 + 7 

 The groups were given about 15 minutes to read and summarise their section of the document.

Step 2: Putting it all together

Each member of the group used their flipchart piece to summarise what they had read and learnt.  This took about 20 minutes.  It was helpful if the group didn’t discuss what they heard at this point (though to be fair, they were very keen to comment on the information).

 In this way the flipchart paper was rebuilt to provide an overview of the consultation as a whole. 

 There was then time for the group to discuss the consultation, say what they thought, and suggest other possibilities, as well as share ideas between groups.  This could take quite a while depending on how vocal people are.

Step 3: Answering the questions

 Helpfully (?), the Department for Education have provided a word document for responses.  I printed this out onto A3 sheets of paper and put them around the room in numerical order.

The teachers then wandered around, writing their answers and thoughts to the questions, discussing further with each other as they did so.  Some question got lots of responses (e.g. should there be tiering and should students be allowed to take calculators, periodic tables or set texts into the exam), others none.  However, as I pointed out during the session, you don’t have to respond to every question – just those you’ve got an opinion about.

At the end of the session, I typed the answers into the word document and emailed it to participants.  That way, when they answer the consultation they have got a starting point to work from.

This process can be adapted depending on how many people you have, or how much time you have. However, it is very important that teachers give their views on these proposals, and I hope that this simple activity will help you to do that by 10^th December 2012.