Re: [Phys-l] Intuiter Physics Savvy Quiz

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

> Dan MacIsaac, in his November 2006 The Physics Teacher WebSights column
> called my attention to the Intuitor web site.  At that site there is a
> 40-question true/false conceptual physics quiz that you might find
> useful.  The URL is:
> <http://www.intuitor.com/physics_test/PhysicsSavvy.html>
>
> Jeff Schnick

It certainly brings up many of the misconceptions, but the true false format
is very inadequate and some of the questions are poorly designed.

For example the hot/cold might be yes if you are talking about only touching
the same type of object, then there is the word overall.

The mass/weight questions second sentence is designed to mislead rather than
get at the naïve conception.

13 requires knowledge of relative distances which is seldom true.

Then there is the expression "the force between".  In interest of using
common expressions, a deliberate misconception is being promoted.

What about a cloud's mass?  I think that has too many ambiguities.

This is NOT a conceptual inventory like the FMCE or even a conceptual survey
like the FCI.  I would prefer to use the questions by McDermott which
actually probe student understanding.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX