Re: [Phys-L] Conceptual Physics Course

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

In the context of "Check Your Work:

On 05/18/2012 09:38 AM, Jeffrey Schnick wrote:
> My plan is to assign some questions/problems in which checking
> whether an answer is reasonable is the only thing that the problem
> solver needs to do (see: "Find-the-Flaw Problems, The Physics Teacher
> -- May 2011 -- Volume 49, Issue 5, pp. 277"), and to include such
> questions/problems on tests.

That is a fine example of the building-block approach.
You start by isolating the one point you want to make.

You start there but you don't end there!  See below.

> An earlier suggestion you made about creating the final exam now, comes to mind.

By the time the final comes around, one would hope that
that the building blocks have been fully integrated into
the larger edifice.

That is, one would hope that "Check Your Work" would be
incorporated into all the exam questions, routinely and 
implicitly ... instead of being a separate stand-alone item.

If at final-exam time you need to keep reminding them to
check their work, you've lost the war.

Excessive reminding may win some battles, but it loses 
the war.