PERC 2019 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Changing The Notation That Represents A Force Changes How Students Say It |
|---|---|
| Abstract: | To facilitate both learning about forces and coordinating forces with the system schema, force symbols in University Modeling Instruction very carefully represent forces as detailed descriptions of interactions. For example, →FgE→B is used to represent the gravitational force by Earth on a ball, where "g" represents gravitational (i.e. the type of interaction), "E" represents Earth, → represents "by" and "on", and "B" represents ball. Although students are taught to say →FgE→B as "gravitational force", audio data from student-led whole-class discussions shows that more than 40% percent of the time →FgE→B was referred to as "force gravity" instead. Analogous results obtained for contact force symbols as well. Because language plays such a crucial role in learning physics, several years ago, as an experiment, the notation was changed from →FgE→B to g→FE→B to make it more closely match how it is to be read. Student use of "force gravity" and "force contact" dropped to less than 5% with this notation switch. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
| Session Time: | Poster Session II |
| Poster Number: | B26 |
| Contributed Paper Record: | Contributed Paper Information |
| Contributed Paper Download: | Download Contributed Paper |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Brant Hinrichs drury university |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Danya Swanson, Drury University |
Contributed Poster | |
| Contributed Poster: | Download the Contributed Poster |
