Problem solving is one of the areas physics education research (PER) focuses on. Before I look at the aspects of physics problem solving that PER has reported, I would like to put down my thoughts on physics problems after being a physics learner and now a physics educator for 10+ years. Physics problems can beContinue reading “Different levels of physics problems and physics problem solving”
Author Archives: shehlit
Student misconceptions about work and energy
Continuing the series of student misconceptions that have been reported by the physics education research community, this post is about work and energy. Energy is an abstract concept. It cannot be seen, but the effect can be observed in everyday life. It is an idea that is readily accepted when one is first introduced toContinue reading “Student misconceptions about work and energy”
Student misconceptions on forces and motion
Today I continue to put down the student misconceptions on forces and motion as reported from physics education research. Every physics teacher will encounter the misconceptions every time when they teach force and motion. It is inevitable because of the “mismatch” of what was taught with the daily life experience. However, there is actually noContinue reading “Student misconceptions on forces and motion”
Student misconceptions on kinematics
In this post, I put down the student misconceptions on kinematics that I came across from reading physics education research (PER) papers that have been published. Kinematics means the study of motion. So, this post will focus on student difficulties on displacement, velocity, speed, and acceleration. Definitions Before I discuss what I learned from theContinue reading “Student misconceptions on kinematics”
My overview on physics education research
Physics education research (PER) started in 1970s. It started when physics educators started to investigate student misconceptions in kinematics and dynamics at the university level. People such as Arnold Arons, Lillian McDermott, David Hestenes, and Frederick Reif investigated student difficulties in mechanics and vectors. They developed different physics tasks to probe student understanding, collected studentContinue reading “My overview on physics education research”
Position-time vs. Displacement-time vs. Distance-time
This topic is more related to the learning of physics in secondary school in Malaysia and Singapore. I had a chance to look at the physics syllabus at the SPM level, Singapore GCE O level, and iGCSE Cambridge. In the iGCSE Cambridge physics syllabus, students are introduced distance-time graph. In the SPM and GCE OContinue reading “Position-time vs. Displacement-time vs. Distance-time”
Energy and systems
When I first learned about energy, I was introduced to different forms of energy, such as kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, chemical energy, heat energy, light, etc. I also learned about one of the important conservation laws – the conservation of energy.I did not consider energy conservation from the systems point of view. Perhaps itContinue reading “Energy and systems”
“On” and “by”
In describing forces, one needs to take note of the “on” and “by”. We need to mention the object the force exerts on and the agent that exerts the force. For example, the weight of the block is the gravitational force by the Earth on the block. Note: If you prefer gravitational force on the block by the Earth, that is fine too!Continue reading ““On” and “by””
Resolution of vectors
Vectors are useful mathematical tools to describe physical quantities that contain both magnitude and direction. Examples of such physical quantities are displacement, velocity, acceleration, forces, etc. When students work with forces, teachers will teach them how to add force vectors using the parallelogram or the triangle method to find the resultant force. These methods workContinue reading “Resolution of vectors”
Problem solving involving kinematics, forces, and work
I emphasize these chains of reasoning involving kinematics, forces, and work after students learned them whenever possible. I believe students will benefit if they apply them to problems. Here is one example: Objects at rest / moving at constant speed: Acceleration is zero Net force is zero The forces acting on the object are balanced /Sum ofContinue reading “Problem solving involving kinematics, forces, and work”
Chang Physics Class 