Socio-ecological systems thinking (SEST), is an interdisciplinary science branch that views natural systems and societal systems as one overall system. To support students in building SEST, we designed a 10-week, place-based energy literacy unit where 6th-grade students investigated energy flow between natural systems and their school building. Students developed systems models throughout the unit that they used to propose energy flow relationships between large scale system components and to articulate causal mechanisms that lead to overall system behavior. We analyzed their pre/mid/post-systems models to elucidate their trajectories in discerning system behavior. Findings suggest that students improved in proposing energy flow relationships and causal mechanisms for either the social or natural systems but did not view them as one overall system.
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Exploring 6th-Grade Students Model-Based Reasoning about Energy Flow Between Societal and Earth Systems.
While there is an extensive literature base on the energy ideas students hold, there are few studies that examine how elementary students use scientific modeling to conceptualize the interrelationships between societal and Earth systems or how students consider the ways that societal energy systems interact with natural energy systems. This is exploratory project is situated in this space. We explored how 6th-grade students’ (aged 11 – 12) conceptualize energy flow within and across their school building and the surrounding environment within their models. Here, we report our baseline findings the students held at the start of 6th-grade prior to experiencing any energy curriculum asking how 6th-grade students models conceptualize energy flow between their school building and the surrounding environment in their models. We worked with five 6th-grade teachers from the same school district within a small Midwestern city. We collected and analyzed the data quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings highlight the students’ ideas about energy flow which includes viewing energy used in human systems as separate from energy in natural systems (such as a food chain).
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- Award ID(s):
- 2009127
- PAR ID:
- 10345585
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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