Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning

Eichenlaub, Mark; Hemingway, Deborah; Redish, Edward F.

home » Conference Proceedings Detail Page

Detail Page

Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning

written by Mark Eichenlaub, Deborah Hemingway, and Edward F. Redish

Students often get stuck in problem solving, ignoring their physical intuition in favor of plug-and-chug or pattern-matching approaches. We suggest that examining the extreme cases is a useful way of moving students towards more expert-like problem solving. Based on a case study, we show that novice students can quickly learn to use extreme cases productively in problem-solving. In reasoning about extreme cases, students blend conceptual and mathematical cognitive resources. At the same time, they can generate new and creative uses for extreme-case reasoning, here recasting it from a tool for evaluating answers to one for generating them. Extreme case reasoning may prove a valuable instructional goal at the introductory level.

Physics Education Research Conference 2016
Part of the PER Conference series
Sacramento, CA: July 20-21, 2016
Pages 108-111

download 3805kb .pdf
Last Modified: December 26, 2016
previous versions

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education Foundations - Problem Solving Education Practices - Instructional Material Design = Problem/Question - Pedagogy	- Upper Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Research study

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

Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2016…
Access Rights:: Free access
License:: This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the published article's author(s), title, proceedings citation, and DOI.
Rights Holder:: American Association of Physics Teachers
DOI:: 10.1119/perc.2016.pr.022
NSF Number:: 1504366
Keyword:: PERC 2016
Record Creator:: Metadata instance created November 30, 2016 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:: December 26, 2016 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: December 29, 2016
Other Collections:: The PER-Central

Post a new comment on this item

ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!

Record Link

<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=14206">Eichenlaub, M, D. Hemingway, and E. Redish. "Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA, July 20-21, 2016.</a>

AIP Format

M. Eichenlaub, D. Hemingway, and E. Redish, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA, 2016, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558).

AJP/PRST-PER

M. Eichenlaub, D. Hemingway, and E. Redish, Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA, 2016, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558>.

APA Format

Eichenlaub, M., Hemingway, D., & Redish, E. (2016, July 20-21). Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA. Retrieved April 26, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558

Chicago Format

Eichenlaub, M, D. Hemingway, and E. Redish. "Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2016, Sacramento, CA, July 20-21, 2016. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558 (accessed 26 April 2024).

MLA Format

Eichenlaub, Mark, Deborah Hemingway, and Edward F. Redish. "Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning." Physics Education Research Conference 2016. Sacramento, CA: 2016. 108-111 of PER Conference. 26 Apr. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Mark Eichenlaub and Deborah Hemingway and Edward F. Redish", Title = {Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2016}, Pages = {108-111}, Address = {Sacramento, CA}, Series = {PER Conference}, Month = {July 20-21}, Year = {2016} }

Refer Export Format

%A Mark Eichenlaub %A Deborah Hemingway %A Edward F. Redish %T Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning %S PER Conference %D July 20-21 2016 %P 108-111 %C Sacramento, CA %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2016 %O July 20-21 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Eichenlaub, Mark %A Hemingway, Deborah %A Redish, Edward F. %D July 20-21 2016 %T Drawing physical insight from mathematics via extreme case reasoning %B Physics Education Research Conference 2016 %C Sacramento, CA %P 108-111 %S PER Conference %8 July 20-21 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14206&DocID=4558

Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.

Citation Source Information

The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual.

The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References.

The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation.

The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ.