John D. wrote about the Energy Concept Inventory
(ECI) and had some critical comments. I haven't used the ECI with students but I have been aware of the test for quite many years. I'll address some questions posed by John from the point of view of HS physics.
1) John wrote: "For one thing, I am mystified by ECI
question 10. AFAICT, answer (c) and answer (d)
both seem absolutely correct. Help me out here:
In physics terms, does anybody know of any
rational basis for preferring one answer
over the other? Also, in pedagogical terms, if a
student chooses (c) over (d) or vice versa, what
does that tell you?"
I think that answer (d) is preferred over (c). The reason is that (c) states: "matter is converted to energy". The number of protons, neutrons and electrons is unchanged. Hence, one could argue that "matter" is not converted to energy; instead mass is. I am aware that matter in this sense can be converted to (other type of) energy in annihilation but this in not the case in this question. I doubt this is a rational basis John was looking for but I am quite sure that this is what the author of the test was looking for.
2) ECI question 2. I agree with John that the drawing is misleading. OTOH I would guess that quite
many good students just ignore the bump and look for
cues about conservation of mechanical energy. The question could be a problem to some thoughtful students which is certainly not fair. The figure should be redrawn to avoid the problem pointed out by John.
3) ECI question 3. As John said, "much depends on how you interpret the word "surroundings"". Again, students (e.g. in the International Baccalaureate program) are quite used to this kind of questions and they probably understand "surroundings" as the rest of the universe. This is how some HS physics textbook treat it and some even define it if my memory serves me correctly. Of course, John's criticism is justified and the wording should be improved.
4) ECI question 8. My guess is that it mentions "soccer" and an "ankle" injury to make the question more real world- like as many students probably know
about cold pack. I don't think that the question
was imitating context-rich questions.
Perhaps someone who knows Gregg Swackhammer could let him know about the concerns expressed by John?
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