5,250 research outputs found
Addressing student models of energy loss in quantum tunnelling
We report on a multi-year, multi-institution study to investigate student
reasoning about energy in the context of quantum tunnelling. We use ungraded
surveys, graded examination questions, individual clinical interviews, and
multiple-choice exams to build a picture of the types of responses that
students typically give. We find that two descriptions of tunnelling through a
square barrier are particularly common. Students often state that tunnelling
particles lose energy while tunnelling. When sketching wave functions, students
also show a shift in the axis of oscillation, as if the height of the axis of
oscillation indicated the energy of the particle. We find inconsistencies
between students' conceptual, mathematical, and graphical models of quantum
tunnelling. As part of a curriculum in quantum physics, we have developed
instructional materials to help students develop a more robust and less
inconsistent picture of tunnelling, and present data suggesting that we have
succeeded in doing so.Comment: Originally submitted to the European Journal of Physics on 2005 Feb
10. Pages: 14. References: 11. Figures: 9. Tables: 1. Resubmitted May 18 with
revisions that include an appendix with the curriculum materials discussed in
the paper (4 page small group UW-style tutorial
Productive resources in students’ ideas about energy: An alternative analysis of Watts’ original interview transcripts
For over 30 years, researchers have investigated students’ ideas about energy with the intent of reforming instructional practice. In this pursuit, Watts contributed an influential study with his 1983 paper “Some alternative views of energy” [Phys. Educ. 18, 213 (1983)]. Watts’ “alternative frameworks” continue to be used for categorizing students’ non-normative ideas about energy. Using a resources framework, we propose an alternate analysis of student responses from Watts’ interviews. In our analysis, we show how students’ activated resources about energy are disciplinarily productive. We suggest that fostering seeds of scientific understandings in students’ ideas about energy may play an important role in their development of scientific literacy
Mathematical Tutorials in Introductory Physics
Students in introductory calculus-based physics not only have difficulty
understanding the fundamental physical concepts, they often have difficulty
relating those concepts to the mathematics they have learned in math courses.
This produces a barrier to their robust use of concepts in complex problem
solving. As a part of the Activity-Based Physics project, we are carrying out
research on these difficulties and are developing instructional materials in
the tutorial framework developed at the University of Washington by Lillian C.
McDermott and her collaborators. In this paper, we present a discussion of
student difficulties and the development of a mathematical tutorial on the
subject of pulses moving on strings.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, 12 references and note
Students Talk about Energy in Project- Based Inquiry Science
We examine the types of emergent language eighth grade students in rural Maine middle schools use when they discuss energy in their first experiences with Project-Based Inquiry Science: Energy, a research-based curriculum that uses a specific language for talking about energy. By comparative analysis of the language used by the curriculum materials to students’ language, we find that students’ talk is at times more aligned with a Stores and Transfer model of energy than the Forms model supported by the curriculum
Casimir Energy and Entropy between perfect metal Spheres
We calculate the Casimir energy and entropy for two perfect metal spheres in
the large and short separation limit. We obtain nonmonotonic behavior of the
Helmholtz free energy with separation and temperature, leading to parameter
ranges with negative entropy, and also nonmonotonic behavior of the entropy
with temperature and with the separation between the spheres. The appearance of
this anomalous behavior of the entropy is discussed as well as its
thermodynamic consequences.Comment: 10 pages and 8 figures. Accepted for publication in the Proceedings
of the tenth conference on Quantum Field Theory under the influence of
external conditions - QFEXT'1
Kompetenzorientierung vs. solide mathematische Bildung: Wohin steuert der Mathematikunterricht?
Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, Analogien zwischen zwei gescheiterten Reformansätzen
vor 50 Jahren und der heutigen Entwicklung aufzuzeigen und
dazu aufzufordern, daraus die nötigen Lehren zu ziehen
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