Teaching Energy Across the Sciences, K-12

Students may have an idea of what energy means but still lack a full understanding of how it is a part of their everyday lives. As editor Jeffrey Mordine explains, many essential social and personal decisions require an understanding of energy as a concept and in practice. By starting with an explanation of why energy is important and what students should know, then moving on to how energy should be taught in several disciplines, Teaching Energy Across the Sciences K–12 can clarify – rather than complicate – how both your students and you regard instruction about energy.

This valuable resource provides you with the strategies and tools you need to help students understand the crosscutting nature of the concept – an understanding that’s crucial to developing a clear lens on how energy works in many contexts, both inside and outside the classroom.

Whether or not you have a strong science background, you’ll welcome this book’s accessibility. In addition to the foreword by Helen Quinn, the book’s three main sections cover these important topics:

1. Understanding why energy is such an important concept, what students need to know about it and how to address the concept with the Next Generation Science Standards.
2. Using five central ideas about energy to teach the subject consistently across the life, physical and Earth and space science, as well as in all year levels.
3. Providing the professional development and systemic support that teachers need to adopt this book’s approaches.

“The NGSS firmly assert that we can no longer accept teaching energy in a way that does now show students how energy idea are connected,” Nordine writes. Simply and clearly, this book shows you how to make those vital connections.