Research on problem solving in science

Based an in depth bibliographical study, problem solving in science is focused from the point of view of the underlying psychological theories and of explaining factors – such as the nature of the task, the problem solver, and the context – aiming at supporting additional research on this field. A brief presentation of Gowin’s Vee is included as a heuristic tool to critically analyse research studies

Resolución de problemas en Física y aprendizaje significativo. (Primera parte: Revisión de estudios y fundamentos)

DOCTORAL THESIS: ZULMA GANGOSOTHESIS DIRECTORS:DR. MARCO ANTONIO MOREIRAInstituto de Física. Universidad Federal de Rio Grande do Sul. Porto Alegre. Brasil.This work is the first part of a research presented at the Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, to obtain the Doctor Degree in Physics. The main idea presented here is to propase teaching strategies to sol ve problems that take into account the main results of research done in this area. Tliese results, after implementation and evaluation, are to be incorporated to the currículum in such a way that the students can construct meaningfullearning.</p

A Cognitive model to analyse physics and chemistry problem-solving skills: mental representations implied in solving actions

In physics and chemistry, the development of problem-solving skills is necessary to become an expert. A simple cognitive model to analyse such development is proposed and tested. An exploratory research was conducted with expert professors and students in initial and advanced years. A think aloud procedure was used to obtain relevant data while the participants tried to solve undefined, open problems. Solving these problems required a particular skill representative of expertise: modelling reality using science. More than 1350 solving actions were collected and related to the mental representations elaborated, developed and inter-related by solvers. The proposed model was able to account for expert-novice differences in terms of the respective distributions of solving actions among the mental representations. Large differences appeared in the mental representation of Conceptual scientific Model. In addition, advanced and initial students showed similar and significant averages of unproductive actions, while experts took very few. Experts showed high convergence in their distributions of actions among the mental representations. If the outcomes were replicated with higher external validity, the model could help researchers to analyse the cognitive mechanisms in problem-solving, and teachers to better focus their efforts on specific students' lacks

Análisis jurídico de la película “La Pasión de Cristo” de Mel Gibson

Este trabajo profundiza en la cuestión acerca del juicio de Jesús de Nazaret según la película La Pasión de Cristo, de Mel Gibson. En el mismo, se considera la situación política, histórica y legal de la época en el lugar geográfico donde acontecieron los hechos. Analizando también el reparto de poderes entre el Imperio romano y los mandatarios judíos en la ciudad de Jerusalén, así como el proceso contra Jesús, desde la conocida Oración en el huerto, hasta su muerte y sepultura; pasando por el arresto, el juicio judío, el juicio romano y la actuación de Poncio Pilato, la flagelación y la pena de crucifixión. También se toman en cuenta escenografías de la película ajenas al juicio pero que contienen algún aspecto jurídico digno de consideración como: la situación de las mujeres, el comercio en Jerusalén, la condena a lapidación o el contrato de compra y venta de cosa futura.Grado en Derech

Obstacles modelling reality: two exploratory studies on physics defined and undefined problems

One important skill to be developed in future physicists is modelling reality using physics. Problem-solving is the activity most used to teach, learn and assess physics skills at the university level. However, most of the problems habitually used in physics subjects seem not to encourage developing this skill. Two empirical exploratory studies were conducted. Educational materials were analysed to contrast the hypothesis asserting that most of the academic problems would not help students to develop the modelling skills. Secondly, with the proposed"Physics Problem Understanding Model", two kinds of experimental problems were elaborated. A small group of experts solved the experimental problems in an interview. The hypothesis stated that there would be evident differences between skills associated with the solving procedures of each type of experimental problem. Results served to contrast the cognitive model proposed for sufficiency and supported the hypotheses even though further studies are needed to obtain external validit

Espumas Metálicas de Níquel. Caracterización y Comportamiento en servicio

El trabajo desarrollado a continuación, pretende, por un lado, realizar una caracterización microestructural y mecánica de una espuma de aleación de níquel y una espuma de níquel puro. Para ello, se llevan a cabo ensayos de densidad, porosidad, fluorescencia de rayos X (FRX), difracción de rayos X (DRX), magnetismo y microestructurales mediante análisis de imagen. Por otro lado, se realiza un estudio del comportamiento frente a la corrosión de dichas espumas, realizando ensayos electroquímicos de corrosión, potencial a circuito abierto y de polarización anódica, además de ensayos de impedancias para caracterizar estos materiales en diferentes medios de ensayo. Posteriormente, con el objetivo de optimizar el comportamiento de estos materiales tanto en medios industriales como en medios fisiológicos, se realiza un estudio del efecto que tiene un recubrimiento de una película de polímero conductor (polipirrol dopado con DBSA), sobre el comportamiento a corrosión, comparándolo con los resultados de los ensayos realizados sobre las espumas sin recubrimiento.Departamento de Ciencias de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica, Expresión Gráfica en la Ingeniería, Ingeniería Cartográfica, Geodesia y Fotogrametría, Ingeniería Mecánica e Ingeniería de los Procesos de FabricaciónGrado en Ingeniería Mecánic

La resolución de problemas en física y su representación : un estudio en la escuela media

The present study explores: a) the relationship between certain characteristics of physics (problem statements and the internal representation that students form after reading the statement; b) the correlation between this representation and the equation generation stage. Seventeen-year-old students of secondary school from Madrid were taken as an accidental sample (N = 189). Certain characteristics of these statements were observed to be favourable instances to solve the problem. Possible implications for the instruction were analysed

Representaciones y resolución de problemas en Física

La intención de construir una teoría general de la cognición humana basada en un Único formato representacional ha mostrado ser, hasta el momento, una empresa demasiado ambiciosa. No obstante, en el intento de explicar ciertos fenómenos mentales involucrados en tareas cognitivas particulares, han surgido numerosos formatos representacionales en el ámbito de la Ciencia Cognitiva

Adaptive drift and barrier-avoidance by a fly-forage migrant along a climate-driven flyway

BACKGROUND: Route choice and travel performance of fly-forage migrants are partly driven by large-scale habitat availability, but it remains unclear to what extent wind support through large-scale wind regimes moulds their migratory behaviour. We aimed to determine to what extent a trans-equatorial fly-forage migrant engages in adaptive drift through distinct wind regimes and biomes across Africa. The Inter-tropical Front (ITF) marks a strong and seasonally shifting climatic boundary at the thermal equator, and we assessed whether migratory detours were associated with this climatic feature. Furthermore, we sought to disentangle the influence of wind and biome on daily, regional and seasonal travel performance. METHODS: We GPS-tracked 19 adult Eleonora’s falcons Falco eleonorae from the westernmost population on the Canary Islands across 39 autumn and 36 spring migrations to and from Madagascar. Tracks were annotated with wind data to assess the falcons’ orientation behaviour and the wind support they achieved in each season and distinct biomes. We further tested whether falcon routes across the Sahel were correlated with the ITF position, and how realized wind support and biome affect daily travel times, distances and speeds. RESULTS: Changes in orientation behaviour across Africa’s biomes were associated with changes in prevailing wind fields. Falcons realized higher wind support along their detours than was available along the shortest possible route by drifting through adverse autumn wind fields, but compromised wind support while detouring through supportive spring wind fields. Movements across the Sahel-Sudan zone were strongly associated to the ITF position in autumn, but were more individually variable in spring. Realized wind support was an important driver of daily travel speeds and distances, in conjunction with regional wind-independent variation in daily travel time budgets. CONCLUSIONS: Although daily travel time budgets of falcons vary independently from wind, their daily travel performance is strongly affected by orientation-dependent wind support. Falcons thereby tend to drift to minimize or avoid headwinds through opposing wind fields and over ecological barriers, while compensating through weak or supportive wind fields and over hospitable biomes. The ITF may offer a climatic leading line to fly-forage migrants in terms of both flight and foraging conditions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40462-021-00272-8