PERC 2010 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Surveying Students’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics in One Spatial Dimension |
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| Abstract: | Development of conceptual multiple-choice surveys related to a particular physics topic is important for designing research-based learning tools to reduce the difficulties. We explore the difficulties that the advanced undergraduate and graduate students have with quantum mechanics formalism in one spatial dimension. We developed a research-based conceptual multiple-choice survey that targets these issues to obtain information about the common difficulties and administered it to more than a hundred students from seven different institutions. The issues targeted in the survey include possible wavefunctions, bound and scattering states, quantum measurement, expectation values, Hamiltonian, time-dependence of wavefunction and time-dependence of expectation value. We find that the advanced undergraduate and graduate students have many common difficulties with these concepts but research-based tutorials and peer-instruction tools can significantly reduce these difficulties. The survey can be administered to assess the effectiveness of various intructional strategies. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Chandralekha Singh University of Ptitsburgh 3941 Ohara St. Department of Physics, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260 Phone: 4126249045 Fax: 4126249163 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Guangtian Zhu, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh |
