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| Focus: Students demonstrate their intuition or prior learning about the effects of gravity on objects of differing mass, then carry out a practical investigation and interpret the outcome. | ||||||
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Questions
/ instructions: |
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mean
score
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y4
1999(1995) |
y8
1999(1995) |
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| 1.
THINK FIRST — do not try it yet. You have a 10 cent coin and a 50 cent coin. Which picture do you think shows a way to hold the coins before you drop them so they will hit the floor at the same time? Circle the picture which you think shows the best way. |
same level |
76
(65)
|
49
(43)
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| 50c higher | 15 (18) | 39 (45) | ||||
| 2.
NOW TRY IT. Hold your arms in each of the different ways and drop the coins. Write down which coin hit the floor first. |
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10c
first
|
83
(71)
|
80
(79)
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both together |
63
(54)
|
68
(69)
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50c
first
|
22
(22)
|
17
(17)
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50c
first
|
88
(77)
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87
(84)
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| 3.
Which is the best way to hold your arms so the coins hit the floor at
the same time? Circle the picture which you think shows the best way. |
same level |
86 (85) | 84 (86) | |||
| 4. What could you do to check your results in question 2? |
repeat
test
|
50
(51)
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61
(58)
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have
second observer
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7
(7)
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25
(26)
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| Commentary:
Surprisingly, about 25 percent more year 4 than year 8 students predicted the result correctly. Year 4 and year 8 students were equally adept at conducting and interpreting the experiments. Results in 1995 and 1999 were very similar for year 8 students, but year 4 students did noticably better in 1999 than in 1995, on questions 1 & 2. |
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