What is it about?
A level physics students were asked to produce concept maps to represent their understanding of the particle physics topic. This paper is about what an analysis of the concept maps can tell us about what they have learned or not learned.
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Why is it important?
This material would potentially be of interest to those who teach A level physics and those who teach particle physics to undergraduates. They may wish to use the technique of concept mapping described in the paper with their own classes. The outcomes of the research may help to inform their teaching as there were a number of misunderstandings or misconceptions amongst the A level students.
Perspectives
This is important because little research about pupils' understandings appeared to have been carried out looking at the subatomic level. It was particularly interesting that the only correct statement made by most of the students in both schools was that annihilation takes place when matter and antimatter collide, although some students may have been unable to distinguish between annihilation and pair production. A high proportion of students knew of up, down and strange quarks, and that the electron is a lepton. However, some students appeared to have a misconception that everything is made of quarks. Students found it harder to classify tau particles than they did electrons and muons. Where students made incorrect links about muons and tau particles their concept maps suggested that they thought they were mesons or quarks.
Helen Gourlay
Brunel University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Using concept mapping to learn about A level physics students’ understandings of particle physics, EPJ Web of Conferences, January 2018, EDP Sciences,
DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/201818202050.
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