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Session:
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Assessing Student Learning
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Paper Type:
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Contributed
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Title:
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Development and Tests of a Quantum Mechanics Assessment Instrument*
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Meeting:
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121st AAPT National Meeting: Guelph, Ontario, Canada |
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Location:
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MacLachlan, Room 102 |
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Date:
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8/1/00 |
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Time:
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2:30PM
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Author:
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Richard W. Robinett, Pennsylvania State Univ.
814-863-0965, rick@phys.psu.edu
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Co-Author(s):
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Erdat Cataloglu, Fatih M. Tasar
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Abstract:
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We are developing a test designed to probe students' conceptual and visual understanding of the core ideas of undergraduate quantum mechanics which we call the Quantum Mechanics Visualization Instrument (QMVI)1. We focus on the common material covered in modern physics courses, at the junior-senior level, and in first-year graduate courses, studying how student understanding develops over the course of the undergraduate curriculum. The QMVI covers such
standard topics as probability, qualitative behavior of solutions of the time-independent Schrodinger equation (including wavefunction amplitude and "wiggliness'' and connections to classical motion), and tunneling. We also test topics which are increasingly being covered at these levels, such as momentum-space ideas and time-dependent wavepackets. Two versions have been pilot tested and we discuss the results. Such baseline data may eventually be used to assess the efficacy of new pedagogical tools such as modern software
packages and Web-based materials.
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Footnotes:
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*Supported in part by NSF grant #DUE-9950702.
1. See "Development of Quantum Mechanics Visualization Instrument''
and "Augmentation of Student's Visual Understanding of Selected Topics
in Quantum Mechanics'' by the authors at the Winter 2000 AAPT Meeting.
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