Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics XIV: Simple DC Circuits

This post continues this series into second semester introductory calculus-based physics, usually electromagnetic theory. This question addresses basic DC circuits. In a traditional introductory e&m course, circuits are presented with so many idealizations that according to such treatments simple circuits shouldn’t work at all! Two of the most important idealizations are that potential differences along […]

Conceptual Physics: Time in Special Relativity

This is basically a quick brain dump. I’m teaching a section of conceptual physics this semester for the first time in many years. It has caused me to revisit everything about the topics I’m including in the course. When the course was assigned to me, I immediately decided to make it consist of twentieth century […]

Modeling Reading for Depth and Understanding

Critical thinking is something we all say we want to impart to our students but something for which we frequently see very little explicit classroom modeling. This is one of the reasons the LCTTA (Learning Critical Thinking Through Astronomy) Project was started. This post will provide a very explicit way to introduce one aspect of […]

Conceptual Understanding in Introductory Physics I: Models, Testability, and Falsifiability

This post begins a series that was inspired by Grant Wiggins’ post on conceptual understanding in mathematics. Wiggins presents a list of thirteen questions aimed mainly at high school students “who have passed all traditional math courses through algebra and geometry.” These questions reminded of a list of about twenty similar questions I have been compiling (mostly […]