Energy Cubes

The Next Generation Science Standards lay out a model of energy that locates energy within objects and fields, and tracks energy as it transfers between these objects and transforms between forms of energy while always being conserved. This model of energy pervades much of modern science and represents a foundational, cross-cutting concept for students. However, because it is abstract, energy is a very difficult topic for most students to learn. The authors have developed Energy Cubes to help make energy more concrete for students. Energy Cubes allow groups of learners to represent the dynamic energy changes in real-world scenarios by moving and flipping cubes on a horizontal shared workspace. While Energy Cubes are accessible for elementary students, with carefully chosen scenarios they can promote sophisticated and rigorous reasoning and argumentation among learners at all grade levels. This article starts with a discussion of some of the affordances of Energy Cubes. It then walks readers through the processes of selecting and refining energy scenarios for use in the classroom, sequencing energy scenarios, introducing Energy Cubes to students, creating an artifact from Energy Cube conversations, and debriefing Energy Cubes. The article concludes with a discussion of the limitations of Energy Cubes.