Recent publications have documented positive attitudinal shifts on the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) among students enrolled in courses with an explicit epistemological focus. We now report positive attitudinal shifts in classes using the Physics by Inquiry (PbI) curriculum, which has only an implicit focus on student epistemologies and nature of science issues. These positive shifts have occurred in several different implementations of the curriculum, across multiple institutions and multiple semesters. In many classes, students experienced significant attitudinal shifts in the problemsolving categories of the CLASS, despite the conceptual focus of most PbI courses.
We report results from an investigation of student ability to apply the concepts of work and energy to situations in which the internal structure of a system cannot be ignored, that is, the system cannot be treated as a particle. Students in introductory calculus-based physics courses were asked written and online questions after relevant instruction by lectures, textbook, and laboratory. Several difficulties were identified. Some related to student ability to calculate the work done on a system. Failure to associate work with the change in energy of a system was also widespread. The results have implications for instruction that aims for a rigorous treatment of energy concepts that is consistent with the first law of thermodynamics. The findings are guiding the development of two tutorials to supplement instruction.
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