College Students'Intuitive Understanding and Problem-Solving of Energy and Momentum

This study addresses students' intuitive understanding of energy and momentum and their problem solving ability. The subjects of this research were students who had experiences with conservation of energy and momentum Nine undergraduate students completed event-based Interviews with three relat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the International Conference 2009-10, Vol.1263, p.79-82
Main Authors: Chittasirinuwat, Onchira, Kruatong, Tussatrin, Paosawatyanyong, Boonchoat
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Colleges
Collisions
Commands
Conservation
Construction
Design factors
Education
Energy conservation
Graphs
Learning
Problem solving
Steels
Strategy
Students
Teaching
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Summary:This study addresses students' intuitive understanding of energy and momentum and their problem solving ability. The subjects of this research were students who had experiences with conservation of energy and momentum Nine undergraduate students completed event-based Interviews with three related events which composed of Event I: Simple collisions, Event II: Newton's cradle and Event IE: Gauss gun. Their intuitive understanding was explored through three well-defined items involving Event I and IL The interviews revealed that most students explained the two events by utilizing their intuitive understanding rather than scientific conceptions. Then problem-solving thinking was identified through ill-defined problems involving Event m. From the Gauss gun setting, students were asked to explain how Gauss gun works, how to build the highest power Gauss gun and interpret the graph of mass and distance of steel ball after collisions. Research findings showed that students who have fairly good command of basic knowledge, tended to use of problem solving strategies as expected. For example, a student who understood the perfectly transferring energy and momentum of the equal mass of balls, was able to identify the possible factors for design more effective Gauss gun reasonably. However, most of the students were unable to use suitable vocabulary in providing reasons and explanations for certain problem-solving procedures. Thus, lacking basic knowledge can impede problem-solving thinking. It is hope that these findings will serve as a reference for educators in improving the learning and teaching of energy and momentum in general and problem solving instruction in particular.
ISSN:0094-243X