Ontological Metaphors for Negative Energy in an Interdisciplinary Context

Teaching about energy in interdisciplinary settings that emphasize coherence among physics, chemistry, and biology leads to a more central role for chemical bond energy. We argue that an interdisciplinary approach to chemical energy leads to modeling chemical bonds in terms of negative energy. While...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review special topics. Physics education research 2014-07, Vol.10 (2), p.020108, Article 020108
Main Authors: Dreyfus, Benjamin W, Geller, Benjamin D, Gouvea, Julia, Sawtelle, Vashti, Turpen, Chandra, Redish, Edward F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Blending
Bond energy
Case Studies
Chemical bonds
Chemical energy
Chemistry
College Science
Context
Energy
Figurative Language
Interdisciplinary Approach
Interdisciplinary aspects
Introductory Courses
Metaphor
Ontology
Organic Chemistry
Philosophy
Physics
Reasoning
Science Instruction
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:Teaching about energy in interdisciplinary settings that emphasize coherence among physics, chemistry, and biology leads to a more central role for chemical bond energy. We argue that an interdisciplinary approach to chemical energy leads to modeling chemical bonds in terms of negative energy. While recent work on ontological metaphors for energy has emphasized the affordances of the substance ontology, this ontology is problematic in the context of negative energy. Instead, we apply a dynamic ontologies perspective to argue that blending the substance and location ontologies for energy can be effective in reasoning about negative energy in the context of reasoning about chemical bonds. We present data from an introductory physics for the life sciences course in which both experts and students successfully use this blended ontology. Blending these ontologies is most successful when the substance and location ontologies are combined such that each is strategically utilized in reasoning about particular aspects of energetic processes.
ISSN:1554-9178
1554-9178
2469-9896
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.10.020108