New trends in physics teaching, v.4; The ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Italy
ENERGY PROBLEM: TO-DAY'S ISSUES
In our time, energy production, distribution and use is again - after a period of abundance and
low cost - a crucial economic problem. The same industrial society that was started by the
invention of energy-producing devices and developed by substituting mechanical energy for
human work is now threatened by energy shortage; and the science that was born in the industrial
revolution is asked to find a way for survival.
This issue is particularly important in Italy, where local energy resources are very scarce.
Hydro-electric power, mainly available in the Alpine region, has been heavily exploited already.
The country is now dependent on imported energy (mainly oil) for more than 75 per cent of
consumption. An intensive nuclear plant building plan was proposed some years ago, but, as in
many other countries, it met with strong opposition, particularly from people who lived near
planned reactor sites. Solar technology, which in our geographical position could make an
important contribution, is not sufficiently developed, nor is it supported by the government.
In such conditions it seems very important that students are informed about energy technologies
and resources, and about methods of decision-making in this field. This is also a way to introduce
some important physical concepts and applications into the curriculum.
However, as has already been mentioned, the structure and organization of the Italian school
system makes it very difficult to devote much time to a subject not already included in the
official programme. Relevant modifications are possible only if an authorization is requested of
the Department of Education, with many bureaucratic complications. Moreover, examiners are
not prepared to deal with such abnormal situations, and this may cause damage to pupils who
receive lower marks than those following the conventional course.
So our group chose to develop a set of short units, requiring about ten periods each, for the
16 to 19 age range, that could be inserted into a normal physics course at different stages. Some
units need very little preliminary physics and can be used at the beginning of the course or by the
mathematics teacher (who in Italy is very often the physics teacher as well); some units can be
used before electromagnetism is dealt with, and some only at the end of the course.
This flexible proposal also came about for another reason: one of our primary aims - as is
apparent from the first part of this paper - is to help to change the way the energy concept is
taught from its first introduction in the curriculum, and not merely to change a final chapter
in a standard physics course. We feel that the energy conservation law, which connects quantitatively
many different fields of science, should be introduced by a wide variety of different
examples. For instance, mechanical energy is usually introduced by considering classical machines,
levers and pulleys and so on; wind and tidal generators could be additional examples, attractive
to the students.
Obviously this choice poses various problems, because we must try to make the units as
independent as possible from each other, and at the same time avoid unnecessary repetition.
The scheme of units is as follows:
Part I: Limits of growth
(a) Trends in energy consumption
(b) World energy resources
Part 11: New methods of energy production
(a) Nuclear fission reactors
(b) Nuclear fusion
(c) Renewable resources
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