Hey everyone,
Apparently I just forgot about the blog for the entire month of October (oops!) but I'll try to sum it all up here:
Following exam one, I began to see a large increase in students coming to my hours once the new material for the second exam began to get more challenging. I think this is typical for most UTA's, and this is just because there are students who thought they had prepared enough for the exam, but were unpleasantly surprised at their inability to apply physics to new problems they have not yet seen. This is why physics is often a tough subject for people; anyone can understand a given problem if they work on it long enough, but the real key is being able to solve problems using your overall knowledge of physics. I think most students become a deer in the headlights at this moment, so we need to better prepare them for this by helping them develop a system to solve problems that can be applied to any problem they encounter, whether it be on an exam or in their recitation.
Another problem I continue to see with students is that they don't want to draw a picture of the problem or write down the initial information provided in the problem. Instead, they attempt to solve the problem in their head as best they can, which is a terrible strategy. Yes, they can often get the right answer to part or even all of the problem, but they are not actually practicing their problem solving skills this way, which is what physics is all about. I think we need to continue to stress the importance of drawing a diagram and writing out their work, and hopefully it will eventually stick with them.
Finally, I've noticed that a good amount of the students that regularly come to my hours actually performed better on the second exam than they did on the first, even though the average for the class was lower. This is a sign that we do have a positive impact on the student's learning experience, and that we shouldn't give up on any student willing to seek out our help.
Keep up the good work everyone!
-Mike
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