This project will develop and investigate the opportunities and limitations of Focus on Energy, a professional development (PD) system for elementary teachers (grades 3-5). The PD will contain: resources that will help teachers to interpret, evaluate and cultivate students' ideas about energy; classroom activities to help them to identify, track and represent energy forms and flows; and supports to help them in engaging students in these activities.
For more information about this work, see the following citations and resource list:
Roger G. Tobin, Sara Lacy, Sally Crissman, and Nick Haddad (2018). Model-based reasoning about energy. Journal of Research in Science Teaching (February, 2018).
Roger Tobin, Sara Lacy, Sally Crissman, Nick Haddad, Orlala Wentink and Lane Seeley (2019). Where does energy go when it's "gone"? Promoting understandig of energy dissipation. American Journal of Physics (Vol.87, Issue 7).
TERC (2019). Focus on Energy curriculum and resources. https://focusonenergy.terc.edu