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Session:
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Title:
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Student Selection of Reasoning Resources in Nearly-Novel Situations
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Meeting:
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128th AAPT National Meeting: Miami Beach, FL |
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Location:
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Le Jardin |
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Date:
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Wednesday, Jan. 28 |
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Time:
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1:15PM
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Author:
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Eleanor Raulerson, Univ. of Maine
207-581-1038, le@fructose.umephy.maine.edu
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Co-Author(s):
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Michael C. Wittmann
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Abstract:
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As part of ongoing research into cognitive processes and student thought, members of the University of Maine (UM) Physics Education Research Laboratory developed an iterative survey to study the reasoning processes in a specific nearly-novel situation -- the construction of vacuum tube diodes. Students were asked to rank the currents in six simple diode circuits, then sketch a design of a diode when given only a source of charges. Preliminary data from three populations -- upper-level undergraduate physics majors at UM and Grinnell College, and graduate students at UM -- suggest that the ability to identify diode function in simple circuits correlates strongly with the ability to construct diodes. All three populations are similarly poor at identifying diode function, though some differences exist.
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Footnotes:
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None
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