Children's energy concepts: a cross‐age study

Abstract

This paper reports on a study which attempts to answer the question: at what age may children usefully be taught about energy? It has been shown in previous studies that conceptual change strategies, based on children's prior knowledge about energy, have been successful with 9th‐grade students. This study shows that the ‘building blocks’ on which the teaching of energy is based are held even by fifth and sixth graders. This implies that the process of learning about energy may begin from fifth grade onwards in primary schools.