Physics Jan. 2011

Overall goals:

Common difficulties students encounter when solving physics problems in different representations.
Hints that may to help students overcome these difficulties

Discussion

Students had most difficulty when problems were presented to students graphically
Students seemed to gain representational competence as they progressed through interviews. This would suggest that explicit practice would be very beneficial
Students had difficulty generating any integral that was required to solve problem
Students had difficulty using symmetry to solve problem

Summary of difficulties students had with each presentation

Number	Picture	Function	Graph
Algebraic computation	Associating symbols with the picture	Algebraic computation	calculus processes for finding features:
Associating symbols with quantities	Writing down a function from the picture:	Calculus computation	integral -> area
Units	Ex: Area as a function of distance	Appropriate application of formulae for special cases: If f(x) = kx^2, then U(x) /= 1/2 kx^2)	derivative -> slope
			Identifying integration variable
			Units
			finding f_max
			estimating area/slop
			units of area/slope