Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law

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written by Brant E. Hinrichs

The Modeling Instruction program at Arizona State University has developed a representational tool, called a system schema, to help students make a first level of abstraction of an actual physical situation. A system schema consists of identifying and labeling all objects of interest from a given physical situation, as well as all the different types of interactions between the objects. Given all the relevant objects and their interactions, students can explicitly identify which are part of their system and which are not, and then go on to model the interactions affecting their choice of system as either (i) mechanisms for energy transfer, or (ii) forces being exerted. In this paper, I describe the system schema tool, give examples of its use in the context of forces, and present some evidence on its effectiveness in helping students understand Newton's Third Law.

Physics Education Research Conference 2004
Part of the PER Conference series
Sacramento, California: August 4-5, 2004
Volume 790, Pages 117-120

download 145kb .pdf
Published: September 1, 2005

Subjects	Levels	Resource Types
Classical Mechanics - Newton's Third Law Education Practices - Active Learning = Modeling - Instructional Material Design	- Lower Undergraduate - Graduate/Professional	- Reference Material = Report

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Mirror:: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2084715
Access Rights:: Available by subscription and
Available for purchase
Restriction:: © 2004 American Institute of Physics
DOI:: 10.1063/1.2084715
PACSs:: 01.40.Fk; 01.40.Gm; 01.50.Fr
Keywords:: Modeling Instruction, Newton method, PERC 2004, educational aids, representational tool, student experiments, system schema
Record Cloner:: Metadata instance created October 19, 2009 by Alea Smith
Record Updated:: July 8, 2013 by Lyle Barbato
Other Collections:: The PER-Central

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<a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=9546">Hinrichs, Brant. "Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2004, Sacramento, California, August 4-5, 2004.</a>

AIP Format

B. Hinrichs, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2004, Sacramento, California, 2004, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444).

AJP/PRST-PER

B. Hinrichs, Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2004, Sacramento, California, 2004, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444>.

APA Format

Hinrichs, B. (2004, August 4-5). Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2004, Sacramento, California. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444

Chicago Format

Hinrichs, Brant. "Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2004, Sacramento, California, August 4-5, 2004. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444 (accessed 25 April 2024).

MLA Format

Hinrichs, Brant. "Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law." Physics Education Research Conference 2004. Sacramento, California: 2004. 117-120 Vol. 790 of PER Conference. 25 Apr. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444>.

BibTeX Export Format

@inproceedings{ Author = "Brant Hinrichs", Title = {Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2004}, Pages = {117-120}, Address = {Sacramento, California}, Series = {PER Conference}, Volume = {790}, Month = {August 4-5}, Year = {2004} }

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%A Brant Hinrichs %T Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law %S PER Conference %V 790 %D August 4-5 2004 %P 117-120 %C Sacramento, California %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2004 %O August 4-5 %O application/pdf

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%0 Conference Proceedings %A Hinrichs, Brant %D August 4-5 2004 %T Using the System Schema Representational Tool to Promote Student Understanding of Newton's Third Law %B Physics Education Research Conference 2004 %C Sacramento, California %V 790 %P 117-120 %S PER Conference %8 August 4-5 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=9546&DocID=3444

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