Εναλλακτικές, ανανεώσιμες και συμβατικές πηγές ενέργειας. Ψηφιακό διδακτικό σενάριο για μαθητές Λυκείου

Abstract

When energy crisis broke out in 1973, the depletion of energy resources and the need of searching for alternative energy sources was deeply realized. The exploration of students’ knowledge and perceptions about the energy problem and the alternative sources of energy is a basis for the promotion of information and cultivation of perceptions in the extremely serious problem of energy sources. At the same time knowledge and perception’s cultivation contribute to the development of people in healthy natural environments who take important initiatives for their continuous improvement. Education constitutes the important first step in achieving this improvement, as the understanding of renewable energy will be an important part of scientific literacy for the future. When today's secondary school students reach adulthood, many of them will have the ability to move from solar-powered homes to biomass powered vehicles. Much of the electricity used at home and at work will come from solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy. The exploration of students' cognitive backgrounds is essential to addressing the energy issue as, today's students are tomorrow's citizens whose knowledge and action on the energy problem is necessary to deal with it. In recent years, the role of the teacher has been upgraded through the use of new innovative actions such as the implementation of digital teaching scenarios. Digital teaching scenarios combine teaching and pedagogical elements that strengthen the self-motivation of teachers who shape learning objectives adapted to students' needs of “here and now”. The teacher, by participating in a constantly evolving educational system, because of the progress of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), must not and can not be indifferent. However, the use of ICTs is not a solution for every educational problem and a lesson will not be effective only just with their exploitation as a dominant supervisory tool. The most important issue is that teachers have to recognize the educational problem, and design a digital teaching scenario that will contribute to the solution of the educational problem. Research has shown that students' knowledge of alternative energy sources is incomplete. Also, the findings of these surveys reveal that the source of information for students about the energy problem is mainly school and then follows the internet and the media. In addition, surveys show that students have positive perceptions about the use of energy from renewable energy sources. However although they understand that conventional energy sources cause environmental problems, they do not recognize the magnitude of this problem, or prefer to overlook it if economic reasons are involved. 

Students have already been taught natural resource management lessons. However, their knowledge and perceptions of alternative and renewable sources of energy remain incomplete. The teaching scenario proposed in this article is based on a survey conducted by the writer of this article in 2014-2015 on a sample of 40 high school students on the island of Crete in order to reveal their knowledge and perceptions about conventional, alternative and renewable energy sources. The research questions were as follows: 1) What do students know about conventional and alternative energy sources? 2) Where do students receive information and which is their favorite source of knowledge about alternative energy sources? 3) What ways do students use to save energy? The survey revealed important data summarized in the following: (1) The students' knowledge of conventional, renewable and alternative energy sources was incomplete. (2) Sample information on energy sources comes primarily from school and follows the internet, the family, the media. (3) Although the students perceive the need for energy saving at a significant rate, they refuse to save energy using renewable energy because of higher costs. The digital teaching scenario attempts to help students discover themselves their cognitive deficiencies about energy and make progress in improving their perceptions of saving energy and about sources that cause serious environmental pollution. The effectiveness of teaching scenarios is particularly important as school space is a desirable and primary source of information for students. In the three-hour scenario, the educational problem originally relates to the lack of students’ knowledge and perceptions of renewable, conventional energy sources and their savings. The following are the teaching objectives (cognitive, change perceptions). It also describes the four phases of the scenario where students in groups and with the help of their teacher comment on, discover their cognitive gaps in energy and save, evaluate themselves, approach quality and quantity of conventional and alternative renewable sources of energy in nature and form a correct attitude with the help of digital tools such as: "Energy101videos¨ wevideo HapYak, Cram. Finally, in order to explore both their knowledge and perceptions and to evaluate the results during and after the completion of the teaching scenario process, worksheets will be given to students with questions. The content of the worksheets and their questions will be adapted according to the teacher's judgment, on the students’ learning needs. The knowledge gained from cognitive studies shows that in order to bring about conceptual change in the natural sciences, the student must be an active participant in the construction of his or her own knowledge.