Using Energy as a Unifying Concept in the Marshall Middle School Science Curriculum

File(s)
Date
2003-08Author
Collins, Geoff
Jaeger, Peter
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Energy is increasingly an important topic in the lives of people in the
United States and around the world. In education, energy is most often
taught as a single unit within physical science and is rarely mentioned in
other disciplines. Research shows that environmental education works best
when it is infused throughout the curriculum. Energy, as a unifying concept
in science, and a major part of EE, should be infused throughout the
curriculum as well.
We wanted to know if infusing an entire Science curriculum with
energy as a unifying concept would increase students' knowledge of energy.
We developed a 25-question test and gave it to 6th and 7th as a pre- and
post-test first with our traditional non-energy infused curriculum. During
this time, we researched energy activities, lessons and methods to infuse
them into our curriculum.
The next year, we gave test again before and after different students
had received the new energy-infused curriculum. We found that students
receiving the energy-infused curriculum generally scored significantly
higher (an average of 12% higher) on the post-test than those who received
the traditional curriculum. Both 6th and 7th grade groups improved, though
the 6th graders were slightly higher. We feel this supports the idea that using
energy as a unifying concept throughout a Science curriculum is an effective
way to have students learn and retain more knowledge about energy.