Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law

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written by Adrienne L. Traxler, Katrina E. Black, and John R. Thompson

To study introductory student difficulties with electrostatics, we compared student techniques when finding the electric field for spherically symmetric and non-spherically symmetric charged conductors. We used short interviews to design a free-response and multiple-choice-multiple-response survey that was administered to students in introductory calculus-based courses. We present the survey results and discuss them in light of Singh's results for Gauss's Law, Collins and Ferguson's epistemic forms and games, and Tuminaro's extension of games and frames.

Physics Education Research Conference 2006
Part of the PER Conference series
Syracuse, New York: July 26-27, 2006
Volume 883, Pages 173-176

download 192kb .pdf
Published: January 30, 2007

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education - Basic Research - Assessment = Instruments - Cognition Electricity & Magnetism - Electric Fields and Potential = Electric Field - Electrostatics	- Lower Undergraduate - Upper Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Research study

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Formats:: application/pdf
non-digital
Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2508720
Access Rights:: Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2006 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.2508720
PACS:: 01.40.Fk
Keywords:: PERC 2006, assessment instrument, cognition, conceptual understanding, electric fields, electrostatics, interviews
Record Creator:: Metadata instance created June 4, 2007 by Shawn Weatherford
Record Updated:: July 16, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: January 30, 2007

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<a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=5258">Traxler, A, K. Black, and J. Thompson. "Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, July 26-27, 2006.</a>

AIP Format

A. Traxler, K. Black, and J. Thompson, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, 2006, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134).

AJP/PRST-PER

A. Traxler, K. Black, and J. Thompson, Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, 2006, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134>.

APA Format

Traxler, A., Black, K., & Thompson, J. (2006, July 26-27). Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York. Retrieved March 15, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134

Chicago Format

Traxler, A, K. Black, and J. Thompson. "Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2006, Syracuse, New York, July 26-27, 2006. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134 (accessed 15 March 2025).

MLA Format

Traxler, Adrienne, Katrina E. Black, and John Thompson. "Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law." Physics Education Research Conference 2006. Syracuse, New York: 2006. 173-176 Vol. 883 of PER Conference. 15 Mar. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Adrienne Traxler and Katrina E. Black and John Thompson", Title = {Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2006}, Pages = {173-176}, Address = {Syracuse, New York}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {883}, Month = {July 26-27}, Year = {2006} }

Refer Export Format

%A Adrienne Traxler %A Katrina E. Black %A John Thompson %T Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law %S PER Conference %V 883 %D July 26-27 2006 %P 173-176 %C Syracuse, New York %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2006 %O July 26-27 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Traxler, Adrienne %A Black, Katrina E. %A Thompson, John %D July 26-27 2006 %T Students' Use of Symmetry with Gauss's Law %B Physics Education Research Conference 2006 %C Syracuse, New York %V 883 %P 173-176 %S PER Conference %8 July 26-27 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=5258&DocID=2134

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