Physics Teaching, Climate Change, and the Fossil Fuel-Dominated Energy System—Diagrams to Enhance Teaching Energy in Physics

Teaching energy in physics has always presented challenges about a quantitative property of the ability to do work. Before they learn the physics involved, students know things about energy from everyday life: gasoline as a fuel or electricity that energizes computers. They also likely understand many of the socioeconomic, political, and ethical attributes of energy and about concerns of climate change. In school, students learn that energy transforms from one form to another and may be associated with a field or an object. Their teachers and public officials worry about equality of opportunity to learn about physics and energy and their role in sustaining modern life. How might physics teachers help students grasp the contextual meanings in addition to distinguishing between scientific definitions and the development and use of energy in everyday life? We propose the use of two diagrams that connect energy directly to climate change and give students...