In the early stages of a unit on energy and energy conservation, it is typically a goal that the student be able to read a verbal description of a physical situation and identify the forms of energy possessed by a object or a system of objects being described in that situation. This typically includes being able to identify whether the object possesses kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, and/or elastic potential energy. This Concept Builder focuses on the skill of indentiying the presence or absence of these forms of energy.

This Concept Builder was intended as an in-class activity to be used early in a unit on energy. The Concept Builder includes three levels of difficulty. Teachers using the Concept Builder with their classes should preview the activity (or view the Questions in the separate file) in order to judge which levels would be most appropriate for their students. There is a little redundancy from one difficulty level to the next. For example, the Master Difficulty Level includes eight Question Groups; four of these Question Groups were the ones used in the Apprentice Difficulty Level. Similarly, the Wizard Difficulty Level includes four of the Question Groups found in the Master Difficulty Level. Our summary of the three Difficulty Levels is as follows:

We can imagine it being profitable to allow students to make judgements as to what level to begin with and to progress from easier to more difficult levels. 

In order to complete a level, a student must correctly analyze each question at that level. If a student's analysis is incorrect, then the student will have to correctly analyze the same or very similar question twice in order to successfully complete the level. This approach provides the student extra practice on questions for which they exhibited difficulty. As a student progresses through a level, a system of stars and other indicators are used to indicate progress on the level. A star is an indicator of correctly analyzing the question. Once a star is earned, that question is removed from the cue of questions to be analyzed. Each situation is color-coded with either a yellow or a red box. A red box indicates that the student has incorrectly analyzed the question and will have to correctly analyze it twice before earning a star. A yellow box is an indicator that the question must be correctly analyzed one time in order to earn a star. Once every question at a level has been analyzed, the student earns a medal which is displayed on the Main Menu. This system of stars and medals allows a teacher to easily check-off student progress or offer credit for completing assigned levels.

The most valuable (and most overlooked) aspect of this Concept Builder is the Help Me! feature. Each question group is accompanied by a Help page that discusses the specifics of the question. This Help feature transforms the activity from a question-answering activity into a concept-building activity. The student who takes the time to use the Help pages can be transformed from a guesser to a learner and from an unsure student to a confident student. The "meat and potatoes" of the Help pages are in the sections titled "How to Think About This Situation:" Students need to be encouraged by teachers to use the Help Me! button and to read this section of the page. A student that takes time to reflect upon how they are answering the question and how an expert would think about the situation can transform their naivete into expertise. 

 

 

There are numerous resources at The Physics Classroom website that serve as very complementary supports for the Name That Energy Concept Builder. These include:
 

Additional resources and ideas for incorporating Name That Energy into an instructional unit on Work and Energy can be found at the Teacher Toolkits section of The Physics Classroom website.  Visit Teacher Toolkits.