A study of the nature of students’ models of microscopic processes in the context of modern physics experiments

Abstract

University students in modern physics classes were interviewed on their understanding of three fundamental experiments to gain information on their development of models of microscopic processes. In addition, interactive demonstrations were used to probe student understanding of modern physics experiments in two high school physics classes. The nature of the students’ models and the type of information that they used to build a model, both before and after instruction, were analyzed.