At the Limit: Introducing Energy with Human Senses
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Education › peer-review
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In: The Physics Teacher, Vol. 54, No. 9, 01.12.2016, p. 552-555.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Education › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - At the Limit
T2 - Introducing Energy with Human Senses
AU - Stinken, Lisa
AU - Carmesin, Hans-Otto
AU - Heusler, Stefan
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Energy belongs to the core ideas of the physics curriculum. But at the same time, energy is one of the most complex topics in science education since it occurs in multiple ways, such as motion, sound, light, and thermal energy. It can neither be destroyed nor created, but only converted. Due to the variety of relevant scales and abstractness of the term energy, the question arises how to introduce energy at the introductory physics level. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the concept of energy can become meaningful in the context of the human senses. Three simple experiments to investigate the minimal amount of energy that is required to generate a sensory perception are presented. In this way students can learn that even different sensory perceptions can be compared by using energy as the unifying concept.
AB - Energy belongs to the core ideas of the physics curriculum. But at the same time, energy is one of the most complex topics in science education since it occurs in multiple ways, such as motion, sound, light, and thermal energy. It can neither be destroyed nor created, but only converted. Due to the variety of relevant scales and abstractness of the term energy, the question arises how to introduce energy at the introductory physics level. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the concept of energy can become meaningful in the context of the human senses. Three simple experiments to investigate the minimal amount of energy that is required to generate a sensory perception are presented. In this way students can learn that even different sensory perceptions can be compared by using energy as the unifying concept.
KW - Didactics of sciences education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84999740143&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1119/1.4967897
DO - 10.1119/1.4967897
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 54
SP - 552
EP - 555
JO - The Physics Teacher
JF - The Physics Teacher
SN - 1943-4928
IS - 9
ER -