Investigating high school students’ ideas about energy transfer in simple electric circuits

In a recent study, nine students, aged 16-17 years, from Vienna, Austria have been interviewed about energy in electrical circuits. This paper reflects on one part of the study focusing on questioning students about the process of energy transfer. The research design and method involved semi-structured interviews with demonstration experiments, in which the students were asked to observe, describe and explain the experiments. The analysis of the interviews revealed the difficulties students faced in explaining the role of energy and drawing the path of energy transfer in electrical circuits. The paper presents the different energy frameworks described by previous studies that have been used by the students and discusses the inconsistencies in their reasonings. The findings emphasize the need for suitable teaching materials to promote students’ understanding about energy and energy transfer in electrical circuits.