Abstract
Does explaining equations in their own words help students attach physical meaning to the equations?In order for students to correctly solve a given problem, they must have a good understanding ofthe different physical situations described by the equations in their toolbox. This means thatstudents must associate equations with their physical meaning and not just see equations ascollections of letters and mathematical symbols into which to plug numbers. This semester, inseveral undergraduate level Physics courses, we are asking students to explain importantequations in their own words in a variety of pedagogical ways. To motivate and test theirunderstanding, each exam that students take during the semester will include an open-ended“Explain this equation in words” question, which we will score based on the depth ofunderstanding shown. There are a few questions we are interested in exploring: As studentspractice this skill, do their explanations become better (i.e. do individual students show deeperunderstanding as the semester progresses)? Is a student’s score in the “Explain this equation inwords” question on each exam correlated to his/her total exam score and to his/her final grade?Does the emphasis of putting equations into words result in greater conceptual understanding?We will use standardized pre- and post-tests given in each of our courses to see if there is adifference in gain as compared to past semesters. We will present data from two sections of oursecond-semester calculus-based Physics course, and from our first-semester junior-levelElectricity and Magnetism course.