IOP Energy stores (WP comment)
A physicist writes about the teaching of Energy, I reply
Your catchphrase: “Do not talk about Energy unless you are gonna do a calculation” did not resonate with me, so I went and reviewed my own history and was surprised how little energy was mentioned. At school I used the worthy Nelkon texts, and been inspired by the Nuffield little red Physics books. Since neither are in my possesion I checked my inherited CJ Smith Intermediate Physics and found really only one page devoted to kinetic & potential energy which reminded me of (boring ?) electrical energy formulae manipulation too.
At University, twice can I recall energy being mentioned (excluding quantum): first, was a farewell chat from the retiring Head of Department where he said he hoped that we had gained a Physics appreciation to be able to appreciate the effect of handful of joules dropped in a cup of coffee. Some maybe had not, despite the small novelty final year exam paper which consisted of such questions as: “Calculate the maximum output power of a mouse”.
Only when I was in the Lighting business was Energy important: for Lighting Design and energy saving. Lately, in my education career and most recently teaching Science at Primary there was little about energy. Thus despite my misgivings, that it’s not all about the calculations, I now more than appreciate where you are coming from.
However, I am concerned about your approach to fellow scientists. I am not sure I agree with all the compliance points you make in your comparison table — lack of copy and paste option and space reduce my ability to comment point by point. But with regard to your final one: practical investigation of Light intensit on photosynthesis rate I note that there are many suggestions on Google eg varying lamp wattage and/or distance on some seaweed. I imagine that the planning conversation will revolve about the “Light Energy” not necessarily its transfer. Furthermore, it makes me think that you should augment your catchphrase with the word “ experiment”
