The Many Ways to Teach Mechanics: How to Organize the Mechanics Topics in the Curriculum for an Introductory Physics Course
Humans are physicists from the time they are born, learning how the world works through trial and error. Young children are fascinated with sliding, spinning, and bouncing objects, playing with objects to see how the objects react [1]. As a person matures through childhood and into adolescence [2], the person has many experiences with physical scenarios; during these experiences, the person will notice patterns and anomalies in the scenarios. To make sense of the experiences, the person organizes the patterns and anomalies into mental models. The mental models are used to explain and predict outcomes in future experiences, helping the person understand their interactions with the world.
The process of creating and updating mental models is learning, though a person’s mental models may or may not be consistent with the way the physical world actually works. One of the goals for an introductory physics course is to help students develop and use mental models that are consistent with the way the physical world works; creators and teachers of introductory physics courses have an opportunity to influence students’ foundational mental models about the way the physical world works. The curricular, instructional, and assessment structures for an…
