WSST Conference 2017

Physics teachers are well aware that there are several troublesome misconceptions that students (and most other people) hold. These are "learned" by naive interpretations of common experience (such as a belief in centrifugal force) and by commonly used expressions (such as "My momentum KEEPS ME GOING"). Students can usually be trained to give correct answers to test questions on targeted topics, but clever demonstrations and logical arguments have only short-term effect. Getting them to actually believe and understand the correct physics requires that they have tools they can apply to a situation such that they can see for themselves that their old idea is wrong. In this session participants will learn specific things students can do for themselves (tools the teachers can give their students) that will provide convincing proof of the correct physics for selected misconceptions regarding force, linear motion and circular motion.