Many ideas about energy have emerged and thus far ‘human energy’ and ‘toy car energy’ have been lumped together. Sharon decides to have students discuss the similarities and differences between the energy that people have and the energy that toy cars have in order to begin refining their ideas about energy.
Sharon holds the students accountable to their previous ideas. She wants them to do the work of reconciling inconsistencies.
I have found that students often change their minds when having scientific discussions. Their ideas change as they get new evidence. However, it is important to me that students be able to justify the reason they are changing their mind. I have also found that creating a little disequilibrium among students can help them formulate mechanistic responses. Here Gustavo was directly contradicted something that he had said earlier: that weight didn’t matter. I was hoping that, by pointing out the contradiction, the whole class would start thinking about which statement made more sense to them and why.