The Energy Robot who Lost his Memories

Haha this is such a weird experiment I did. I really love the idea that physics education could be like a fantastic fantasy quest where you use physics to solve problems.

I’ve been experimenting with different ways to do this, and these “quest worksheets” are one of my experiments.

For this one, I took all the classic basic energy questions (Identifying types of energies, identifying which types are converted into which other types, converting between Joules and calories, calculating potential and kinetic energy totals, using energy conservation to solve for height or speed of a projectile) and worked them into a story about a little robot who’s lost his memory.

The other thing that was really important to me, was to make the worksheet really, really beautiful and inviting. I know in an ideal world it wouldn’t matter whether a worksheet was pretty or not, but from working with thousands of students, I can see that how the worksheet looks aesthetically has a HUGE impact on how scary or hard they think they problems will be. And therefore how much they engage with the concepts.

Some of my favorite cognitive science research shows that the way a diagram is depicted actually influences which problem solving approach students take (see research on gear rotation tasks by Professor John Black.)

I used to feel kind of judgy when I saw poorly done diagrams or visual explanations in physics textbooks, until I tried to make some myself and realized how insanely challenging and expensive it is to make clear, appealing, and accurate artwork.

This is the first page of the energy story worksheet :)

I’m not sure exactly how much each of these worksheets cost me to make. Mostly because I don’t really want to know. But… the amount has a comma in it for sure.

Anyway, please enjoy this one for free! And let me know if you like it! The others are available in the shop!