Our choice of model affects how we interpret what we observe. Students often have difficulties with the ideas of energy, but not all their difficulties are about energy, alone. We present two examples. In the first, student difficulties with mechanical energy seem to be with the system in which energy flows, not energy itself. In the second, students seem to use a substance metaphor of energy, which has been shown to be very productive, but use the “wrong” substance. Accounting for the nuances of student responses suggests the use of a model of knowledge and learning, the resources framework, that takes into account context dependence and the ways in which incorrect answers often contain substantial amounts of correct information.
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