Helping Students Organize And Retrieve Their Understanding Of Dynamics

Abstract

When confronted with the large amount of information presented in an introductory physics course, students often have difficulty assimilating the concepts and seeing the big picture. Thus they may have difficulty transferring their knowledge to new situations. In this paper we present a conceptual framework that we have developed for teaching and applying dynamics at both the secondary school and college levels. In this framework the causes of motion are graphically related to the description of motion using Newton's laws and impulse/momentum relationships. The framework accommodates translation and rotation, multiple dimensions, and time-varying forces. In addition to presenting the framework, we describe how it is used by teachers and students in the classroom as part of a learner-centered curriculum and provide an elevator activity as an example. Finally, we include the response of students to this approach.