What is energy? Examining engineering students' conceptions of energy

Abstract

Public opinion about energy issues has created an ideological divide between renewable and non-renewable energy sources. In engineering education, energy concepts are sometimes divided and analyzed by disciplinary boundary lines. In an effort to explore how to better teach energy concepts to our students, we sought to first understand how students conceptualize energy. This paper outlines a survey that was administered to students at a small, private, western school of engineering to gain insight into students' understanding of energy concepts and issues (n=82). The survey consisted of questions to gauge students' interests in energy, existing technical understanding, and energy tendencies. The data collected from the survey was used to create and tailor a new energy class to the students so the concepts can be built around student interest and embodied knowledge.