Fostering the Understanding of Energy Dissipation and Conservation: Energy Learning Sequence With Infrared Cameras

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Secondary Science Learning

Abstract

The crosscutting concept energy plays a special role in science education, but the conceptual development is fraught with difficulties especially regarding dissipation and conservation. For recognizing conservation, dissipation processes must be considered.
Within this study, an energy course for 7th grade was developed to include a focus on dissipation processes. A central idea is to consider the related energy transfer as part of dissipation processes. This can be visually supported by IR cameras.
The study was conducted in 7 (N = 175) classes at Gymnasium. Primary results show a significant effect of the energy course on the understanding of dissipation and of experimenting with IR cameras on the understanding of conservation.

Authors

• Susanne Wessnigk, University Hannover

• Larissa Greinert, Leibniz Universitat Hannover