Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Joint Fall 2011 Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 56, Number 7
Thursday–Saturday, October 6–8, 2011; Commerce, Texas
Session L2: Physics Education Research II |
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Chair: Timothy Head, Abilene Christian University Room: Sam Rayburn Center Second Floor, Room Innovations B |
Saturday, October 8, 2011 9:25AM - 9:37AM |
L2.00001: A Comparison of Student Spatial Abilities Across STEM Fields Thad Loftis, Xiimena Cid, Ramon Lopez It has been shown that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) students have higher spatial abilities than students in the liberal arts or humanities. In order to track the change in spatial abilities within a group, studies in physics have examined topics in kinematics, chemistry has examined topics on molecular diagrams, mathematics has examined topics related to geometry, and engineering has developed courses specifically targeting students' spatial abilities. It is understood that students in STEM fields improve their spatial abilities while taking STEM courses, but very few studies have done comparisons amongst the different STEM fields. I will be presenting data comparing different STEM students' spatial ability, assessed using the Mental Rotation Test. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 8, 2011 9:37AM - 9:49AM |
L2.00002: Exploring the Relationship Between Students' Visual Spatial Abilities and Comprehension in STEM Fields Ximena Cid, Ramon Lopez It is well known that student have difficulties with concepts in physics and space science as well as other STEM fields. Some of these difficulties may be rooted in student conceptual errors, whereas other difficulties may arise from issues with visual cognition and spatial intelligence. It has also been suggested that some aspects of high attrition rates from STEM fields can be attributed to students' visual spatial abilities. We will be presenting data collected from introductory courses in the College of Engineering, Department of Physics, Department of Chemistry, and the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington. These data examine the relationship between students' visual spatial abilities and comprehension in the subject matter. Where correlations are found to exist, visual spatial interventions can be implemented to reduce the attrition rates. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 8, 2011 9:49AM - 10:01AM |
L2.00003: The Effect of Problem Format on Students' Answers Beth Thacker, Mark Ellermann, Keith West The same problem written in multiple formats was administered as a quiz in the large introductory physics sections in both the algebra-based and calculus-based classes. The formats included multiple choice only, multiple choice and explain your reasoning, explain your reasoning only, ranking and explaining your reasoning, and a few others. We present the data. [Preview Abstract] |
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