Title: |
Problem Context and Newton’s
Second Law: A Further Look* |
Meeting: |
126th AAPT National Meeting:
Austin, TX |
Location: |
San Antonio |
Date: |
Tuesday, Jan. 14 |
Time: |
4:15 p.m. |
Author: |
Alicia Allbaugh, Kansas
State Univ.
785-532-7167,
allbaugh@phys.ksu.edu |
Co-Author(s): |
N. Sanjay Rebello, Dean A.
Zollman |
Abstract:
|
Homework problems covering
the same conceptual areas can appear quite different to students due to
different situations, variables, and unknowns. To study the effects of
problem context, students in a calculus-based introductory physics
course (including physics majors and engineering majors from several
areas) were interviewed up to four times during the first semester and
twice during the second semester of the course. In these interviews,
each student was asked conceptual questions related to their homework
problems. From this information, students’ applications of Newton’s
Second Law and the dependence of those applications on the context of
the problems were assessed. This presentation will focus on the second
semester topics of electric and magnetic fields. The methodology and
preliminary results will be presented. |
Footnotes:
|
*Supported in part by NSF
grant # REC-0087788. |
|