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What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?
We have given a group of 56 MIT seniors who took mechanics as freshmen a written test similar to the final exam they took in their freshman course, plus the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT) and Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (C-LASS) standard instruments. Students in majors unrelated to physics scored 60% lower on the written analytic part of the final than they did as freshmen. The mean score of all students on conceptual multiple choice questions included on the final also declined by about 60% relative to the scores of freshmen. The mean score of all participants on the MBT was insignificantly changed from the posttest taken as freshmen. More specifically, however, the students' performance on 9 of the 26 MBT items (with 6 of the 9 involving graphical kinematics) represents a gain over their freshman pretest score (a normalized gain of about 70%, double the gain achieved in the freshman course alone), while their performance on the remaining 17 questions is best characterized as a loss of approximately 50% of the material learned in the freshman course. Attitudinal survey results indicate that almost half the seniors feel the specific mechanics course content is unlikely to be useful to them, a significant majority (75-85%) feel that physics does teach valuable skills, and an overwhelming majority believe that mechanics should remain a required course at MIT.
Physics Education Research Conference 2009
Part of the PER Conference Invited Paper series Ann Arbor, Michigan: July 29-30, 2009 Volume 1179, Pages 47-50
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![]() <a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=9452">Barrantes, A, A. Pawl, and D. Pritchard. "What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 29-30, 2009.</a>
![]() A. Barrantes, A. Pawl, and D. Pritchard, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2009, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324).
![]() A. Barrantes, A. Pawl, and D. Pritchard, What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2009, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324>.
![]() Barrantes, A., Pawl, A., & Pritchard, D. (2009, July 29-30). What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Retrieved February 12, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324
![]() Barrantes, A, A. Pawl, and D. Pritchard. "What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2009, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 29-30, 2009. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324 (accessed 12 February 2025).
![]() Barrantes, Analia, Andrew Pawl, and David E. Pritchard. "What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?." Physics Education Research Conference 2009. Ann Arbor, Michigan: 2009. 47-50 Vol. 1179 of PER Conference Invited Paper. 12 Feb. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324>.
![]() @inproceedings{
Author = "Analia Barrantes and Andrew Pawl and David E. Pritchard",
Title = {What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?},
BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2009},
Pages = {47-50},
Address = {Ann Arbor, Michigan},
Series = {PER Conference Invited Paper},
Volume = {1179},
Month = {July 29-30},
Year = {2009}
}
![]() %A Analia Barrantes %A Andrew Pawl %A David E. Pritchard %T What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics? %S PER Conference Invited Paper %V 1179 %D July 29-30 2009 %P 47-50 %C Ann Arbor, Michigan %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2009 %O July 29-30 %O application/pdf ![]() %0 Conference Proceedings %A Barrantes, Analia %A Pawl, Andrew %A Pritchard, David E. %D July 29-30 2009 %T What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics? %B Physics Education Research Conference 2009 %C Ann Arbor, Michigan %V 1179 %P 47-50 %S PER Conference Invited Paper %8 July 29-30 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9452&DocID=1324 Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.
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The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual. The AJP/PRST-PER presented is based on the AIP Style with the addition of journal article titles and conference proceeding article titles. The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References. The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation. The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ. What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?:
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What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?
The authors have published a more detailed paper with the same name in the 2012 issue of PRST-PER. relation by Lyle BarbatoKnow of another related resource? Login to relate this resource to it. |
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