PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
A tale of two approaches: Comparison of evaluation strategies in physics problem solving between first- and third-year students
Page: 1274
One expected student outcome of physics instruction is a set of quantitative reasoning skills that include evaluation of problem solutions. As part of a larger project, we developed and administered tasks to physics students that probe their use of these kinds of evaluation strategies. In a pair interview setting, we asked first-year students and juniors to evaluate expressions for the final velocities of two skaters involved in a one-dimensional elastic collision. The techniques used by the two groups show the differences between novice and intermediate versions of certain evaluation strategies. To do this, we focus on the role of algebra and mathematical operations in the checking process, how the students seem to view equations, and the different ways numbers are plugged into the given equations. By presenting this to the RUME community, we hope to gain insight into relevant RUME frameworks.