Energy Theater is a dynamic, full-body activity that engages all students in representing the flow of energy in various phenomena, such as a light bulb burning steadily or a refrigerator cooling food.1,2 In Energy Theater, each participant acts as a unit of energy that has one form at a time. Regions on the floor correspond to objects in a physical scenario, and participants move from one region to another to demonstrate the flow of energy among objects. (See Figs. 1, 3, and 4.) The goal of Energy Theater is for students to track energy transfers and transformations in real-world energy scenarios while employing the principle of energy conservation and disambiguating matter and energy. Unlike most representations of energy, which are static before-and-after accounting schemes for energy changes, Energy Theater is a dynamic representation that provides a natural stepping stone toward the more advanced ideas of energy density, energy current, and a continuity equation relating them. The fact that conservation of energy is embedded in the representation encourages students to “find the energy” in situations where it may be imperceptible. The rules of Energy Theater are listed in Fig. 2.

1.
R. E.
Scherr
,
H. G.
Close
,
E. W.
Close
,
V. J.
Flood
,
S. B.
McKagan
,
A. D.
Robertson
,
L.
Seeley
,
M. C.
Wittmann
, and
S.
Vokos
, “
Negotiating energy dynamics through embodied action in a materially structured environment
,”
Phys. Rev. ST: Phys. Educ. Res.
9
(
2
),
020105
(
2013
).
2.
R. E.
Scherr
,
H. G.
Close
,
E. W.
Close
, and
S.
Vokos
, “
Representing energy. II. Energy tracking representations
,”
Phys. Rev. ST: Phys. Educ. Res.
8
(
2
),
020115
(
2012
).
3.
These appear in the Next Generation Science Standards as Disciplinary Core Ideas HS-PS2 and HS-PS3, and Crosscutting Concepts Energy and Matter, Cause and Effect, and Systems and System Models.
4.
R. E.
Scherr
,
H. G.
Close
,
S. B.
McKagan
, and
S.
Vokos
, “
Representing energy. I. Representing a substance ontology for energy
,”
Phys. Rev. ST: Phys. Educ. Res.
8
(
2
),
020114
(
2012
).
5.
During this step students may need to revisit the decisions they made in steps 1 and 2. This should be encouraged.
6.
R. E.
Scherr
,
H. G.
Close
,
A. R.
Daane
,
L. S.
DeWater
,
B. W.
Harrer
,
A. D.
Robertson
,
L.
Seeley
, and
S.
Vokos
, “
Energy tracking diagrams
,” under review for
Am. J. Phys.
7.
L. J.
Atkins
, et al, “
Animating energy: Stop-motion animation and energy tracking representations
,”
Phys. Teach.
52
,
152
156
(
March 2014
).
9.
D. M.
Watts
, “
Some alternative views of energy
,”
Phys. Educ.
18
(
5
),
213
(
1983
).
10.
R.
Stavy
, “
Children's ideas about matter
,”
School Sci. Math.
91
,
240
244
(
1991
).
11.
J.
Solomon
, “
Teaching the conservation of energy
,”
Phys. Educ.
20
(
4
),
165
(
1985
).
12.
J.
Solomon
,
Getting to Know About Energy: In School and Society
(
The Falmer Press
,
Bristol, PA
,
1992
).
13.
J.
Ametlier
and
R.
Pinto
, “
Students' reading of innovative images of energy at secondary school level
,”
Int. J. Sci. Educ.
24
,
285
312
(
2002
).
AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.