“守恒还是不守恒?”: 问题驱动的实验观察与分析引导初中生建构对能量守恒的认识

This article presents one lesson from a teaching unit on energy designed by a group of researchers at the Leibniz Institute or Science and Mathematics Education (IPN). The goal of this lesson is to facilitate students' understanding of energy conservation. Based on the principle that students develop an integrated scientifiv understanding through engaging in explainations of phenomena, this lesson builds on five phenomena, each of them confronting students' expectation from previous experience. The unexpected observation is supposed to create a cognitive conflict, raising students' motivation to work through a mini-investigation to further explore that phenomenon. During these mini-investigations, students are led by a worksheet guiding them in developing the idea of energy conservation and using it to explain these observed phenomena.