CarenL\" post_id=\"2011195\" time=\"1610008634\" user_id=\"165804:

This is very informative! Thanks for sharing, I love reading posts like this :thankyou:

Hi Caren,

You are welcomed! Hope you have learnt something!

Cheers!

Speed and Velocity - Misconception


Maradona was the greatest soccer player in my time! He just passed away a few weeks ago. This post is dedicated to him. Juan was also an excellent player, but out shadowed by his peer.

Maradona and Juan collided in a charity game.

https://postimg.cc/yWQg654r

In this soccer game, Maradona (M) and Juan (J), who happened to have the same weight, were running for a ball that was close to them. Marodona ran twice as fast as Juan. Unfortunately, neither of them noticed the other, and ran into each other. At the time they collided, which of the following statement is true?

https://postimg.cc/Z0BZ3DvQ

While their collision was real, as captured in the photo, the “contextual” situation is fictitious. This is just to create a more realistic problem for physics. Maradona was swift, but he could never be running twice as fast as his best peer! Try to think a bit on this interesting problem above and see you can guess the answer. Try to resist checking the answer before an effortful trying, otherwise you will not learn it.

----------



The answer is as below:

https://postimg.cc/Yj57xf1C

Why? Which Newton's Law applies here?

Do you get the right answer? If you don't, do not get upset as you are not alone. Just take a look at the following slide.

This question is adapted from a research published in the Journal of American Physics. The research data was based on five introductory physics courses of Physical World (P-World), General Physics (GP), Engineering Physics (EP), in Kansas State University. A total of 280 students participated in the study, who responded to 4 questions on speed effects on forces (similar to the one posted here). Almost 90% students used wrong models to explain the situation.

https://postimg.cc/mPZ53t6r

This shows how deep rooted the “common sense” physics is when we are placed in real world contexts. All of us have real-life experiences about forces, but most rationalised them with their “common sense”. This is the source of misconceptions; which students bring to the class when learning physics. It acts like a pair of tinted glasses which continues to mask what students \"see\" during lessons or reading text books, thus cripple their learning effectiveness. For students to grasp the right concepts, they need to be aware of their misconceptions and change them.

This 400 years-old wisdom said it all!


John Locke, the famous empiricist philosopher, who believed that knowledge comes only through experiential learning not innate ideas. In his view, man is capable almost of anything, and man’s excellence is the fruit of practice. If one but perseveres, he will master anything. But if a man attempts what is difficult, he may fail and bruise his spirit to the point where he abandons learning. Hence, the content to be learned should be set out in a gradual sequence through which the learner progress at a comfortable pace.

Many parents have the idea that prescribing difficult problems to their sons or daughters will increase the mastery levels in the subject. The reverse could happen! Hence, I advise against parents sending their kids to Olympiad workshops without carefully evaluating their mastery levels. Unprepared students’ passion will likely be extinguished.

Physics, being the “famous one” among the school subjects, needs to be taught incremental and adaptively, or perhaps, even iteratively. I am offering online course for A and O-level physics with this approach, please PM me if you keen.

zac's mum\" post_id=\"2000049\" time=\"1603459005\" user_id=\"53606:[quote=\"zac's mum\" post_id=2000049 time=1603459005 user_id=53606]

ammonite\" post_id=\"2000041\" time=\"1603453892\" user_id=\"50141:

At the secondary school/JC, even University level, what is taught is actually the mere basic foundation of the subject (even if technically detailed).

When the kids actually come out into the workplace, what they need is street savvy and EQ to learn on the job. This could be the latest technology/developments/best practices whatever you want to call it. Can’t be learnt from textbooks as all textbooks are several years’ old research and long outdated.

Met so many interns/fresh grads who came in with stellar grades & scholarships but couldn’t apply their book knowledge.

Learning is a continuous lifelong journey. I don’t want my kid to ever think he has “arrived” after getting a degree.

\"Learning is a continuous lifelong journey\" is not wrong, undergrad training for EQ also not wrong either. But emphasis seems misplaced here. If EQ is so utterly important, why there were not tonnes of them for students to learn? It is only when you have expertise in science and technology, EQ will be an added advantage, not the other way round. Yes, some art graduates can be a general management staff, but he or she will be limited without technical competencies. If everyone is a manager, who will be scientists and engineers. In this \"Alibaba era\", thus, tech and EQ is summed up as technopreneurship? The right message to our younger generations is that they must equip themselves with technical skills first, this is essentially the tasks of our schools and colleges. Of course, their relative importance also depends on whether your kids will opt for technical or non-technical career. While great majority of kids typically have no idea about what they want to be, the safe bet is to excel in all subjects. Yes, straight “A”s! That is where we tutors can help lah, Hahaa!

Teacherfelina\" post_id=\"2001468\" time=\"1604598697\" user_id=\"189330:

Hi! I am a newbie to this forum. I would like to introduce myself as Teacher Felina to everyone here. I mentor my students from 9 to 18 years old and my specialisation is Math and Science, though for some students I provided English classes and even Chinese classes for my international students. I have taught students from local schools to international schools.

I feel that with the new system ie. Only end of year exams for Sec 1
, parents can try out without tuition and monitor the child closely. Once you see your child struggling you should engage someone to help him or her. If the child can cope then review on end of year exam results. This is the only year the child has the time and space on self exploration. Hence it is fine if any parent wants to let the child embark on a journey of self discovery and independent learning.

Hi, Teacherfelina,

I am agreeing with you that exam is really killing the fun of learning! Of course exam is a necessary devil! In the words of a NIE Professor (when I took of my master) - \"exam is a process of allocation\"; mechanistic and merciless, where \"low capability students will be cast as ..\", and \"high capability student will be stars\". It is probably the key instrument for managing meritocracy, our national tenet. But meritocracy also has many flaws too (Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Harkovites, 2019). We all need to walk the razor tip to balance these !

I am starting an online O-Level physics with a full module on Force and Motion next month. Sec 1 &2 students or Sec 3 & 4 students who wish to relearn, are welcome to join. I plan to offer this module as an appreciation course for physics beginners, at no cost to students. The intent is really to get them hooked by physics. PM me if you keen.


It has been well documented in education research that students’ decision on subjects are influenced by peers, parents and teachers, who typically labelled physics as a difficult subject. In US and Europe, Physics is seen as a “masculine” subject that marginalise female students. Girls have to “struggle” a bit to choose the subject, whether identity, result or career consideration. You may be surprised to find out that, the sources of this misconception on physics are parents and teachers! It is understandable why parents think so, because most parents are victims of this misconception too when they were students! But you might wonder why teachers are also “badmouthed” physics. This is because not many teachers are competent to teach physics. According a 2017 study in US, about 50% physics teachers in the public schools are not certified physics teachers! UK is similar, but Singapore is better, I think, from my interactions with some of my physics teacher friends.

Physics is such a fascinating subject which not only touches all aspects of our life, it is also a key to a diverse opportunities of careers, much, much broader than biology and chemistry. (Source: Instagram: kenneth_physics, a research-based forum for physics education).

phtthp\" post_id=\"2000391\" time=\"1603765952\" user_id=\"35251:

littlehtoo\" post_id=\"1957621\" time=\"1578300133\" user_id=\"182578:

hi, i'm a sec 1 student. my mum insists on sending me to sec 3 physics tuition to prepare me for sec 3 bc apparently it's harder. is it really necessary?

You cannot just jump straight into Sec 3 Physics principles and concepts right-away, without going through the basics of Lower Secondary (1 and 2) fundamentals first

Sec 3 Physics principles are built upon your Sec (1 & 2) grasp of foundation first.
Likewise, A-level Physics principles, same thing apply, are built upon your Upper Sec knowledge and understanding

Hi, littlehtoo, I am actually have the same view as your mum. If you keen in Physics, you need to be exposed to physics earlier. I am actually planning an online lesson targeting lower secondary or students who wish to learn physics from scratch. This online lesson is a live lesson by me; provided free of charge during the COVID period. It is all about fun of learning physics, no exam, just have fun in learning physics. The key is for lower secondary to build their correct concepts before they entering Sec 3 and 4. Research has shown that students always bring in their pre-conceptions in learning, however, many of them are misconceptions. These are the barriers for their learning. I will start with a module on the most confusing topic: Force and Motion. The content would still be bounded by O level syllabus. This would be a twice per week lessons, so as to sustain students' memory. My only aim is to attract more students into the physics world, which seems a tough subject, but a rewarding subject if starting right.

PM me if you keen to join.

littlehtoo\" post_id=\"1957621\" time=\"1578300133\" user_id=\"182578:

hi, i'm a sec 1 student. my mum insists on sending me to sec 3 physics tuition to prepare me for sec 3 bc apparently it's harder. is it really necessary?

I am not sure how your mum decided that you should attend the Sec 3 physics session. By now, you must have attended the Sec 3 physics sessions (or not?). How do you find it? Some truly brilliant chaps may be ok to place under this super-accelerated tract. It is interesting to find out what is your experience. I am an advocator for systematic education, rather than this “shock-based” education, which might suit some talented students.

squishybuns:

.


English 71
Maths 48
Science 89
MT 80
History 93
Geography 91
Literature 68
FCE 88
DNT 76
Art 78
Overall 78.2%
Lvl Position 6/162

Hi, squishybuns,

You need not worry anything!

Let’s analyse your scores as followed. Let’s group your subjects into: Language, humanity subjects, math and sciences, the average scores for them:

Language (Eng, MT, Lit): 73.0
Humanities (His, Geo, FCE, Art):87.5
Math: 48
Sciences (Sc, DNT): 82.5

Typically, language subjects are very difficult to score over 75%, hence your language capabilities are more than excellent! This together with your outstanding performance in humanity subjects, indicates that you have a very good language mastery and linguistic-based analytic skills. The latter conclusion is further evidenced by your high score in science. This is because Lower Sec sciences are typically at the conceptual or linguistic-based analytic levels, with very minimal use of math. In contrast to this linguistic-analytic skills, your numerical analytic skills seem not measuring up equally. Hence, your worry.

But let’s ask one fundamental question: what is the purpose of the school? One word: training! Your strong language capabilities must the result of a very good language training in your Primary years (you don’t realise it, you should go back to thank your language teachers!), plus of course your love of readings (you don’t realise it either, thank your parents!)! School is precisely there to train human talents for the great good of the nation and even the world! It is precisely your weakness in math that needs rigorous training. To me, other than languages, math is the single most important subject in the secondary years that every student must learn and master, for it builds the foundation for all if not the great majority of subjects in university which can realise the “greater good” for the nation or the world! You are within the top 3% of your school cohort, means you have the more than sufficient means (IQ) to tackle math subjects in school, otherwise something is very wrong with your school! If you cannot do it, 90% of Singaporean will not!

Math, in fact is much more easy to learn compare to the conceptual subject like physics. There was a research revealing that student complete thousands physics calculation problems would still flounder in conceptual problems (can read my threads)! Math is relatively easy because it is a recipe- or routine-based subject (I mean in secondary to JC levels). You just need to follow 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 steps and do more of the similar variety problems, you can solve most of the questions (A2 could be assured, may be not A1).

For your future success, you must aim to take Elementary and Add Math! Do not be over-shadowed by your lack of training in math during your primary years, you have more than enough materials to excel in these subjects! That I am absolutely sure!