This study investigated student difficulties reading equipotential diagrams and the effect a visual change to these diagrams had on students' ability to interpret these diagrams. Equipotential diagrams are often drawn with a uniform line thickness and color. We modified the equipotential diagrams to use color variation and line thickness to indicate the sign and strength of the potential. These changes, which are consistent with theories of visual attention and grounded cognition, exploit students' innate ability to perceive color and line thickness variations to communicate the electric potential. Students compared electric potentials between indicated points on given traditional or modified diagrams. Results show that these students, even after instruction, responded with a distance only electric potential rule. In addition, we found that the modified diagrams did not have the predicted positive effect on students' ability to rank electric potentials; we suspect this is because students' rule for electric potential did not account for charge sign.
Video and audio data were recorded from five computational coding based labs completed as part of an introductory modern physics course. Three small cube cameras, a larger camera with microphone that could see the whole room, and four live scribe pens recording additional audio were used to document the activities. Several themes emerged from the videos. A major theme was how lab time was spent (on task vs. off task, about physics vs. about computation, on general principles vs. solving a specific problem, working alone vs. together) and what caused students to transition between these different activities. Other major themes were the mood and engagement of students while working in these different areas and where/how patterns of communication were different from those seen for non-computational problem solving activities. We will present these findings and discuss their implications for peer communication and learning in introductory computational physics courses.
This study investigated the impact of an instructional reform on student scientific reasoning skills and general attitudes toward science. The intervention was administered via eight 5-7 minute videos during lab. Each video consisted of an explanation of its targeted concept, a hands-on demo with observations and YouTube clips highlighting the topic being discussed. While viewing the videos, students were required to answer specific questions testing their comprehension of the concepts and the scientific reasoning being displayed. Lawson's Scientific Reasoning Test was administered to assess improvement in student scientific reasoning skills, and the CLASS was used to assess changes in student attitudes towards science. Pre and Post-test results are compared for a control semester and a semester with this new teaching method. Results show that this video intervention, which took students about two hours in total to complete, significantly improved students' science reasoning skills and their attitudes towards science.
Student issues with understanding electric potential and interpreting diagrams were explored in a prior study. The prior study showed equipotential diagram modifications of line thickness and color significantly increased student gaze times at the diagrams without increasing correctness. Students' inattention to electric charge sign and its role in electric potential was a major issue. This study implemented further modifications, based on theories of visual attention and affordance, to electric potential diagrams to increase visual salience of charge sign. Students ranked electric potentials for points on traditional or modified diagrams. Pre-and posttest comparisons and interview results showed training with modified diagrams produced correctness gains of 21% compared with gains of 11% for training with traditional diagrams, and improvement of 36% in application of a conditional rule including charge sign compared with the prior study. In-person training combined with modified diagrams yielded highest pre to post gains of 27%.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.