Student Self-Explanation When Solving a Rigid Body Kinetics Concept Question

The purpose of this ongoing research is to increase conceptual understanding of dynamics using Instructional-Based Learning Activities (IBLAs). IBLAs allow students to participate in hands-on activities where they are presented with a physical scenario that challenges their conceptual understanding of physics principles. Students first make individual predictions and then discuss their predictions with their peers (and “vote” again). They test their conceptions using a physical artifact (although simulations could be used for this), letting the physical world be the authority rather than just the word of the instructor. The teams then fill out a worksheet that helps them try to explain what they have observed. Two to three additional scenarios are then presented to provide further practice on applying important dynamics concepts. By participating in IBLAs, students should increase their conceptual understanding and repair their misconceptions of critical dynamics concepts. At our institution, a common final is implemented for the undergraduate dynamics students at the end of each quarter. During the Winter Quarter 2016, some classes participated in a specific Spool IBLA while other classes did not. The Spool IBLA allowed students to investigate the dynamic behavior of a rolling rigid body. A common demonstration among dynamics instructors, the spool is used to examine the relationship between linear acceleration, force, angular acceleration, moments, and friction. On the common final, a spool question asking the directions of motion and of the friction force was given. Students had to both find the nominal answer to the question as well as write out their justification for their answer. The aim of this report is to compare the responses from students who participated in the Spool IBLA with those students who did not. Introduction and Background It has come to our attention that many engineering students complete their dynamics course without deep conceptual understanding of the principles involved. Ongoing research has been completed to further understand this phenomenon and how we as educators can better instill a conceptual understanding of dynamics in our students. We have found that presenting engineering students with a physical situation and having them predict the outcome can create an engaging learning environment. By participating in a hands-on activity and making predictions about the results, students can test their conceptions and let the physical world be the authority rather than just the word of the instructor. Based on the work of Laws et. al. and highlighted by Prince and Vigant, these hands-on activities are known as Inquiry-Based Learning Activities (IBLA) and follow the general cycle shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Learning cycle for IBLAs. While five different IBLAs have been developed at our institution, only the Spool IBLA will be discussed throughout this paper. In order to investigate the dynamic behaviors of a rolling rigid body, students were presented with four different spool scenarios and asked three corresponding questions as seen in Figure 2 during the Spool IBLA.