Document: CAT-3-28-26

Can an "energy approach" to introductory college physics benefit ecology students?

MILLIKIN ISHIKAWA, C.*

University of California, Davis ¹

Abstract:
The concept of energy pervades ecology. A firm conceptual grasp of energy and energy flow should help students understand many topics in ecologyfrom food webs to plant water potentials and to global warming. Unfortunately, introductory physics courses generally present energy in terms of work and forces and then (if time permits) in terms of thermodynamic laws and equations. At the University of California, Davis, the non-majors physics course uses energy as a central organizing theme. The first quarter of the 3-quarter sequence emphasizes conservation of energy and introduces a novel problem solving approach that is applied to problems involving heat, bonds, and pressure/volume changes, in addition to mechanical energy systems. Data on the effectiveness of the approach for helping students understand various ecological topices will be addressed briefly. However, the primary focus of the talk we be on how ecology and environmental science instructors could use this approach when teaching topics that require a conceptual understanding of energy--an understanding that students may not have gained in their traditional physics courses.

Keywords: education, energy, physics, undergraduate

This abstract is being presented at: 2:45 PM in session:
Oral Session #29: Communicating Ecology.