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What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?
written by Analia Barrantes, Andrew Pawl, and David E. Pritchard
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
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education - Basic Research
- Assessment
= Longitudinal
- Student Characteristics
= Affect
= Skills
- Upper Undergraduate
- Lower Undergraduate
- Reference Material
= Research study
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- Researchers
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Formats:
application/pdf
non-digital
Mirror:
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3266751
Access Rights:
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Available for purchase
Restriction:
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2009 proceedings is also available.
DOI:
10.1063/1.3266751
PACSs:
01.40.Di
01.40.Fk
Keywords:
Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey, Mechanics Baseline Test, PERC 2009, course evaluation, introductory physics, knowledge retention, knowledge retention, longitudinal study, physics education research
Record Cloner:
Metadata instance created October 3, 2009 by Alea Smith
Record Updated:
May 29, 2011 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
November 11, 2009
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Record Link
AIP Format
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).
AJP/PRST-PER
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>.
APA Format
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
Chicago Format
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).
MLA Format
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>.
BibTeX Export Format
@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} }
Refer Export Format

%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

EndNote Export Format

%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


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What do Seniors Remember from Freshman Physics?:

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The authors have published a more detailed paper with the same name in the 2012 issue of PRST-PER.

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