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  Session: SPS Undergraduate Research and Outreach Poster Session
  Paper Type: Poster
  Title: Similar Density Questions with Very Different Results
  Meeting: 2013 Summer Meeting: Portland, Oregon
  Location: N/A
  Date:
  Time: 8:00PM
  Author: Ashley E. Lindow, Grove City College
8564955545, lindowae1@gcc.edu
  Co-Author(s): Elizabeth Carbone, DJ Wagner
  Abstract: While developing a standardized fluids assessment covering buoyancy and pressure, we discovered deficiencies in student understanding of density. In particular, many college students do not recognize that density is a fixed property of a solid substance, such as aluminum or gold. We added questions to our diagnostic exam to probe the extent of student difficulties. In one of our questions, only 50-60% of students recognize that the density of gold is a fixed value. When similar questions from an existing diagnostic [1] are used, however, 85-90% of students correctly identify the density of a piece of wood and of a diamond as fixed values. In this paper we discuss the differences between these questions and how those differences affect student responses.
  Footnotes: [1] http://physics.fullerton.edu/~mloverud/densitysurvey.pdf. R. Yeend, M. Loverude, and B. Gonzalez, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2001, Rochester, New York, 2001, WWW Document, (http://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=4313&DocID=1045). Sponsored by DJ Wagner
  Presentation: LindowDensityPosterPERC2013_djw.pdf

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