Integrating Energy and Equity in High School Physics
Energy Tracking Diagrams
We describe an energy representation, called an Energy Tracking Diagram, that incorporates multiple learning targets for energy, including conservation, forms, tracking (transfer and transformation), and appropriate consideration of systems in complex real-world scenarios. Energy Tracking Diagrams prompt learners to recognize the mechanisms for and constraints on energy transfer and transformation processes. As powerful visual representations, Energy Tracking Diagrams uniquely illuminate learners’ understanding of energy dynamics and can therefore also be used for assessment purposes.
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Energy and Equity Portal
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integrating energy and equity in high school physics.
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Electricity in Our Communities Assignment
An assignment to connect electricity generation to students' lives. Students investigate where the electricity in their home comes from.
Backtracking Your Personal Energy Use
A research project in which students explore the scientific, geographical, and anthropological legacy of an energy resource they depend on.
A Unit on Place-Based Energy Production and Impacts
A unit in which students research energy resources, analyze a local power plant, think critically about impacts, and engage in advocacy.
Kinematics - Tides & Indigenous Fishing Technologies
Conceptual questions using position and velocity graphs to compare the sustainability of industrial and indigenous fishing technologies.
From Motion Tracking to Transportation Justice
An introductory mechanics unit in which students track and analyze their journeys to school and explore energy and equity in transportation.
Heart Health and Microaggressions
1D kinematics problem and reading. Students calculate how far blood moves in a heartbeat and reflect on how microaggressions impact health.
Solar Panels and Energy Sovereignty
Homework questions about how solar panels generate energy to power homes and how Indigenous people use them to pursue energy sovereignty.
Energy Generation and Environmental Justice Unit
A unit in which students debate types of energy generation, research and present on local environmental justice issues, and take action.
Skin Voltage and Wound Healing
Homework question in which students analyze how wound healing depends on electrical properties of skin and varies among demographic groups.
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ABOUT THE ENERGY AND EQUITY PORTAL
Energy is a foundational concept of physics and plays an integral role in a web of sociocultural realities, economic issues, and public policies. The Energy and Equity Portal supports high school teachers in teaching a robust model of energy, grounded in the NGSS, and also intentionally constructed to support engagement with current sociopolitical issues.
Using the resources and community provided in the Portal, teachers explore energy learning as a means for promoting discussions of energy justice and energy equity globally and in our local communities. By developing a model of energy in physics that is fully aware of how science is sociocultural, teachers and students create science concepts informed by their cultural worlds and educational priorities. Check out the classroom-ready teaching tools and enjoy a dynamic and compassionate professional learning community!
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Integrating Energy and Equity in High School Physics