The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions

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written by Thomas M. Scaife and Andrew F. Heckler

We examine student understanding of the magnetic force exerted on a charged particle and report three findings from a series of tests administered to introductory physics students. First, we expand on previous findings that many students believe in "charged" magnetic poles and find that although students may answer according to a model where a positive charge is attracted to a south pole and repulsed by a north, these students may not believe that the poles are charged. Additional models produce identical answer schemes, the primary being magnetic force parallel to magnetic field. Second, the representation format affects responses: students answer differently when the magnetic field is portrayed by a field source vs. by field lines. Third, after traditional instruction improvement in student performance is greater on questions portraying field lines than for questions portraying field sources.

Physics Education Research Conference 2007
Part of the PER Conference series
Greensboro, NC: August 1-2, 2007
Volume 951, Pages 180-183

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Published: November 12, 2007

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Education Foundations - Communication = Representations Education Practices - Active Learning = Modeling Electricity & Magnetism - Magnetic Fields and Forces = Magnetic Fields	- Lower Undergraduate	- Reference Material = Research study

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Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2820927
Access Rights:: Limited free access and
Available by subscription and
Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2007 2007 American Institute of Physics.
DOE Grant:: R305H050125
DOI:: 10.1063/1.2820927
PACSs:: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.Ha; 01.50.Kw
Keywords:: PERC 2007, educational courses, magnetic fields, models, physics, research initiatives, student experiments
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created June 10, 2009 by Jenny Rempel
Record Updated:: July 16, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update when Cataloged:: November 12, 2007
Other Collections:: The PSRC

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Record Link

<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=9102">Scaife, Thomas, and Andrew F. Heckler. "The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, August 1-2, 2007.</a>

AIP Format

T. Scaife and A. Heckler, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, 2007, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017).

AJP/PRST-PER

T. Scaife and A. Heckler, The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, 2007, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017>.

APA Format

Scaife, T., & Heckler, A. (2007, August 1-2). The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC. Retrieved April 26, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017

Chicago Format

Scaife, Thomas, and Andrew F. Heckler. "The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2007, Greensboro, NC, August 1-2, 2007. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017 (accessed 26 April 2024).

MLA Format

Scaife, Thomas, and Andrew F. Heckler. "The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions." Physics Education Research Conference 2007. Greensboro, NC: 2007. 180-183 Vol. 951 of PER Conference. 26 Apr. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Thomas Scaife and Andrew F. Heckler", Title = {The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2007}, Pages = {180-183}, Address = {Greensboro, NC}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {951}, Month = {August 1-2}, Year = {2007} }

Refer Export Format

%A Thomas Scaife %A Andrew F. Heckler %T The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions %S PER Conference %V 951 %D August 1-2 2007 %P 180-183 %C Greensboro, NC %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2007 %O August 1-2 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Scaife, Thomas %A Heckler, Andrew F. %D August 1-2 2007 %T The Effect of Field Representation on Student Responses to Magnetic Force Questions %B Physics Education Research Conference 2007 %C Greensboro, NC %V 951 %P 180-183 %S PER Conference %8 August 1-2 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9102&DocID=2017

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