Physics Of Physics And Learning - 2192 Words

Physics is a scientific field of study that focuses on matter and energy through space and time. Broad, almost philosophical, questions are asked in the study of physics such as How does the universe behave? and Why do atoms move? Possibly one of the oldest academic disciplines, physics is an innately complex field. This is a possible reason that many students have trouble grasping major concepts within physics. Numerous students have difficulty approaching physics, unsure of how to study, understand, or apply the concepts that they are learning. Two research articles discuss this complexity of physics education. The first, written by Danielle Harlow and Valeria Otero, titled Talking to Learn Physics and Learning to Talk Physics,†¦show more content†¦Throughout the study, students understanding of the concept of force was analyzed. During an intensive summer class at which the scholars were analyzed, many misconceptions were established by two observed students, Amy and Deb. Overall the major misconceptions came from a basic misunderstanding of the term force. The readers first observe this as Amy and Deb question the interchangeability of force with other terms. During the study they use, ...force and energy interchangeably and question, ...if force and motion are the same thing... (Harlow and Otero 2). Deb and Amy continue to try and understand the main idea of force, but by not having a proper understand of what force was, they could not reach the next step of understand where force ended and energy began; additionally, the students questioned whether forces could be transferred. After more discussion, Amy and Deb eventually came to a conclusion but still had an incomplete understanding of forces and their relationship to other terms. Looking to Figure 2 (Harlow and Otero 4), the incomplete idea of the relationship between force and acceleration can be observed; unfortunately, the students could not match their verbal ideas to experimental obs ervations. Overall, in the article authored by Harlow and Otero, the audience views the general misconception