Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator

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written by Andy Johnson and Anna Hafele

Learning about radiation requires understanding the general structure of atoms, but many college physics students do not have such understandings. In our efforts to develop inquiry based materials on radiation, we have accumulated additional evidence showing that certain students do indeed have substantial difficulties understanding the basic structure and properties of atoms, and that these difficulties impair their understandings of the simplest radiation processes--emission and ionization. This paper reports on our investigations of student difficulties in understanding basic properties of atoms and ionization and radioactivity. We also describe results from a class using a new pedagogical simulator--the Atom Builder--and provide evidence for marked improvement in student understanding.

Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference series
Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010
Volume 1289, Pages 177-180

download 522kb .pdf
Published: August 24, 2010

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education Foundations - Alternative Conceptions - Assessment Education Practices - Instructional Material Design = Project = Simulation - Technology = Multimedia Modern Physics - Atomic Physics - Nuclear Physics = Radioactivity	- Lower Undergraduate - High School	- Reference Material = Research study

Intended Users	Formats	Ratings
- Researchers - Professional/Practitioners - Educators	- application/pdf - non-digital	Currently 0.0/5 Want to rate this material? Login here!

Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3515191
Access Rights:: Limited free access and
Available by subscription and
Available for purchase; A preprint of the work is available. A hard copy of the PERC 2010 proceedings is available for purchase from the AIP.
Restriction:: © 2010 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.3515191
PACSs:: 01.40.Ha; 01.50.Qb; 01.40.Fk; 01.40.gb; 01.50.ht
Keywords:: Inquiry, PERC 2010, Radiation, Simulator, Student difficulties
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created May 8, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:: May 8, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: August 24, 2010
Other Collections:: The PER-Central

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=12740">Johnson, Andy, and Anna Hafele. "Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010.</a>

AIP Format

A. Johnson and A. Hafele, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285).

AJP/PRST-PER

A. Johnson and A. Hafele, Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285>.

APA Format

Johnson, A., & Hafele, A. (2010, July 21-22). Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285

Chicago Format

Johnson, Andy, and Anna Hafele. "Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285 (accessed 25 April 2024).

MLA Format

Johnson, Andy, and Anna Hafele. "Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 177-180 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference. 25 Apr. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Andy Johnson and Anna Hafele", Title = {Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010}, Pages = {177-180}, Address = {Portland, Oregon}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {1289}, Month = {July 21-22}, Year = {2010} }

Refer Export Format

%A Andy Johnson %A Anna Hafele %T Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator %S PER Conference %V 1289 %D July 21-22 2010 %P 177-180 %C Portland, Oregon %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %O July 21-22 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Johnson, Andy %A Hafele, Anna %D July 21-22 2010 %T Exploring Student Understanding of Atoms and Radiation with the Atom Builder Simulator %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 177-180 %S PER Conference %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=12740&DocID=3285

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