Broader public outreach and scientific communication to young students from diverse backgrounds are vital to the public support and longevity of future generations of scientists and engineers. In this study, we present a program that aims to systematically teach over 10,000 elementary school students the basic principles of the First Law of Thermodynamics through an annual large-scale outreach event at the University of Minnesota, called <i>Energy and U</i>. This show interactively guides students through different ways to convert energy between forms and emphasizes that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. In our findings using real-time feedback via Likert-type clicker surveys over two years, we observed that the percentage of elementary school students that correctly answered the question “Is it possible to create energy?” increased from 14% immediately before the show to 89% immediately after the show. Students who had seen the show at least six months prior were twice as likely to correctly answer at the beginning of the show, demonstrating longer-term lesson retention. Interestingly, with 99% confidence interval, a statistically significant difference in the students’ response to “Can you create energy?” versus “Can you destroy energy?” was found, revealing a potential effect of word choice on the interpretation of the First Law. Standard economic indicators were not correlated with student performance in (1) learning the show’s key concepts, (2) interest in science, or (3) desire to attend college. Such analysis is consistent with the previously–reported postulate in the chemical education literature that economic biases surrounding interest in STEM fields are less pronounced in elementary school than later in high school. This study provides one of the first examples of incorporating quantitative tools into large-scale outreach events for elementary school students to better understand and enhance broader impacts and learning outcomes.

Energy and U: Teaching elementary school students thermodynamics through explosions, lasers, and dancing

256th National Meeting (2018)

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