Abstract
We report on students' thinking regarding calorimetry concepts in an introductory calculus-based physics course. We found that despite overall good performance, only about half of the students were able to provide correct answers with satisfactory explanations. A number of persistent student difficulties were found to affect approximately 40% of the students even after instruction, including apparent confusion about the meaning of specific heat and misunderstanding of the nature of thermal energy exchange. Student response patterns varied significantly depending on the context of the question and often reasoning did not appear to be consistent among contexts, instead favoring "rule-based" reasoning. Interviews with students suggest that difficulty with algebraic manipulations is a significant contributor to incorrect responses on calorimetry questions.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1168-1176 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | American Journal of Physics |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 18 2011 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
Cite this
Student understanding of calorimetry in introductory calculus-based physics. / Christensen, Warren M.; Meltzer, David; Nguyen, Ngoc Loan.
In: American Journal of Physics, Vol. 79, No. 11, 18.10.2011, p. 1168-1176.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Student understanding of calorimetry in introductory calculus-based physics
AU - Christensen, Warren M.
AU - Meltzer, David
AU - Nguyen, Ngoc Loan
PY - 2011/10/18
Y1 - 2011/10/18
N2 - We report on students' thinking regarding calorimetry concepts in an introductory calculus-based physics course. We found that despite overall good performance, only about half of the students were able to provide correct answers with satisfactory explanations. A number of persistent student difficulties were found to affect approximately 40% of the students even after instruction, including apparent confusion about the meaning of specific heat and misunderstanding of the nature of thermal energy exchange. Student response patterns varied significantly depending on the context of the question and often reasoning did not appear to be consistent among contexts, instead favoring "rule-based" reasoning. Interviews with students suggest that difficulty with algebraic manipulations is a significant contributor to incorrect responses on calorimetry questions.
AB - We report on students' thinking regarding calorimetry concepts in an introductory calculus-based physics course. We found that despite overall good performance, only about half of the students were able to provide correct answers with satisfactory explanations. A number of persistent student difficulties were found to affect approximately 40% of the students even after instruction, including apparent confusion about the meaning of specific heat and misunderstanding of the nature of thermal energy exchange. Student response patterns varied significantly depending on the context of the question and often reasoning did not appear to be consistent among contexts, instead favoring "rule-based" reasoning. Interviews with students suggest that difficulty with algebraic manipulations is a significant contributor to incorrect responses on calorimetry questions.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=80054766229&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1119/1.3630936
DO - 10.1119/1.3630936
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80054766229
VL - 79
SP - 1168
EP - 1176
JO - American Journal of Physics
JF - American Journal of Physics
SN - 0002-9505
IS - 11
ER -