Many students have incorrect ideas about sinking and floating. Traditional instruction typically fails to address these ideas. Prior research-based interventions have required much time and/or good understanding of prerequisite concepts. This article describes an interactive lecture activity on buoyancy that has proven successful at addressing common conceptual difficulties with a smaller investment of time.
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The question has been posed at a number of universities, including several pilot sites for Tutorials in Introductory Physics. See Ref. 8 for further details.
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The bottle also typically tips to one side. The courses in this study did not cover topics of torque or rotational statics, so this effect was discussed only in passing.
18.
The author thanks Roger Nanes for suggesting this extension.
19.
Confusion between mass and volume has been previously reported by Piaget among others and confirmed repeatedly in different physical contexts and student populations.
20.
Two of the best performances came from sections taught by the author, which might lead to accusations of “teaching to the test.” However, the two sections with the worst performances were also taught by the author.
© 2009 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2009
American Association of Physics Teachers
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