A didactical approach of large-scale electricity generation systems at the elementary school level

Abstract

This work refers to the organising principles and content of a didactical intervention (addresses to children aged 11-12) related to the concept of energy on large- scale electricity generation systems (thermoelectric power plants, hydroelectric power plants, wind farms, photovoltaic farms). These organising principles refer to: (a) the structure and the content of school knowledge of the teaching subject where we distinguish for levels of approach: the phenomenological, the technological, the scientific and the environmental level, (b)the constructivist approach of teaching and learning science which is based on the assumptions that children in the age of 11-12 years using the linear causal reasoning and the systemic thinking will be able to construct a semi-quantitative energy model that is proper to the description and the explanation of large-scale electricity generation systems, and (c)the pedagogical context based on the practice of problem situations and the socio-cognitive approach of teaching. There will also be presented the didactical aims and some elements of the content of didactical intervention which derive from the basic organising principles above mentioned.