Ranking Task Exercises in Physics
PrefaceOn November 21-23, 1991, a workshop for two-year college physics teachers on Conceptual Exercises and Overview Case Studies was held at Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL. This workshop was the first of many such workshops conducted as part of the Two-Year College (TYC) Physics Workshop Project, which was sponsored by Joliet Junior College, Lee College (Baytown, TX), and a series of grants from the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation. At one of the sessions in this workshop, the participants, working together in groups of three or four, constructed ranking tasks and then presented them to the larger group for feedback and response. (A ranking task is a conceptual exercise created by David P. Maloney as one of the many ways to ascertain a student's understanding of concepts.)During the 1991-98 period, the TYC Physics Workshop Project continued to hold workshops during which a variety of ranking tasks for introductory physics were developed at or as part of the follow-up activities after the workshop by the participants. During the academic year 1993-94, the ranking tasks that had been developed as part of the TYC Physics Workshops were categorized and put into electronic form at Lee College. These were called A Collection of Physics Ranking Tasks and were distributed to previous workshop participants in May 1994. During the academic year 1994-95, a subset of these ranking tasks and newly developed ones were further refined and widely distributed by Joliet Junior College as A Selection of Physics Ranking Tasks. This book is a revision and expansion of that book.Although these materials are copyrighted by Prentice Hall, professors have the right to use the materials for noncommercial educational purposes and can copy or have copied the materials in the book for the students in their classes. However, these materials, whether in their original or in an altered form, may not otherwise be distributed, transmitted, or included in other documents without express written permission from the publisher. We have included a CD with this look that has a pdf version of each ranking task exercise in 8 1/2 x I 1 format to further facilitate professors' use of these materials in their own classes, workshops, or for any noncommercial use. If you do not already have Adobe Acrobat Reader, please contact Adobe's web site (adobe), where it can be downloaded for free. This software will allow you to print and/or modify these ranking tasks.In the first section, we have included some background material, including sample and practice ranking tasks, which give students an understanding of this type of instrument, and examples of how to complete a ranking task. The main body of ranking tasks is divided into broad topical areas, with mechanics in the first section. The second section includes properties of matter, heat and thermodynamics, and waves. The third section covers electricity and magnetism. And finally, we have included an answer key for this edition.You are invited to visit our web site for corrections, updates, and additional ranking tasks (tycphysics). If you have any questions about these ranking tasks, please contact us.Tom O'Kuma  tokuma@leeDave Maloney  maloney@ipfwCurtis Hieggelke  curth@jjc.cc.il.us