- Each object in the scenario gets a designated area of the whiteboard.
- Each unit of energy is represented by a letter. The letter tells you the form of the energy: T for thermal, K for kinetic, etc.
- Arrows on the diagram represent transfers and/or transformations of energy. If K in one object --> K in another object, the "-->" represents transfer, as if we were mapping the path of a walking person in energy theater. If K-->T, that's transformation, which in energy theater is shown by a person changing handsigns, nothing to do with movement. (In the analysis Benedikt and I did, we sometimes show both happening at once and symbolize it with a single arrow. People often do both at once in energy theater, too.)
Abby and I are using energy theater diagrams to figure out the energy dynamics of a hand lifting and lowering a ball. It's very challenging and we're still in the process. As we were accounting for each of the transfers and transformations that we were indicating, we decided on a new rule for energy theater diagrams:
- The color of an arrow corresponds to the process by which energy is transferred or transformed.
For example, we used red arrows for conduction (the warm hand transfers thermal energy to the cool ball), purple arrows for forces (the hand pushes the ball), and orange arrows for metabolism (exertion warms the hand).
We did this in order to help ourselves keep track of our own reasoning, and I loooove it for that. I feel like it really captures a new and important kind of information that I want to include in my analysis. (I sort of did this a little bit in the refrigerator analysis, but not systematically.) And guess what: because we were being accountable in a new way, we immediately found ourselves faced with new questions. They are killer questions - we can't answer them yet! and they were forced on us by the representation. We'll tell you about it when we're ready to post about the ball-lowering scenario.
A different kind of diagram development was in response to our finding ourselves making multiple drafts of our diagram, not only because we changed our minds, but also just to tidy it up. We think magnetic letters would help us organize our presentation better. Kids' alphabet magnets would be cute, but the colors are wrong and there are not enough of the letters we will need. We are in the process of obtaining a large supply of blank white magnetic squares, which I intend to mark up with C's and K's and T's and so on.
Near-simultaneous posts! Jinx!
ReplyDeleteThe idea that creating an energy theater diagram (or any other representation) leads one to ask new questions is very provocative. Do we have video evidence of teachers asking new questions as a result of creating energy theater diagrams or engaging in ET? If we believe that asking questions is an important part of learning (and I do!), then surely this would be a measure of the effectiveness of ET and/or ET diagrams?
ReplyDeleteHave we ever even taught the teachers Energy Theater Diagrams? We've asked them to create a visual representation of their Energy Theater, but I was thinking we did not enforce a specific consensus representation. Am I wrong about that?
ReplyDeleteI think my use of ETDs is unusually disciplined, but of course I would think that. :)
No, I don't think we've taught them Energy Theater Diagrams in the specific sense you are describing. But I think they've generated diagrams very similar to these on Action-to-Writing worksheets and on whiteboards when solving problems, and I've always referred to these teacher-generated diagrams as "Energy Theater Diagrams". I don't know whether these diagrams often or ever have the same degree of "rigor" as you use in creating Energy Theater Diagrams, but it would be worth exploring.
ReplyDeleteThe one place where I think I have definitely seen the kind of strict adherence to rules that generates new questions, as you are describing, is in E2 last summer in the whole-class discussions that Leslie led applying the 4 or 5 laws. I suspect that a lot of the strict adherence to rules was enforced by Leslie, rather than by the teachers themselves, but this process definitely generated lots of new and fruitful questions for them.
Do the energy storyboards that I taught in ue2 this summer qualify?
ReplyDeleteI put up some examples of what I think of as Energy Theater Diagrams from E1 Su2011 here: http://scherrenergyproject.blogspot.com/2011/09/energy-theater-diagrams-e1-examples.html. I would have put them in a comment - but we can't put images in here right?
ReplyDelete