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Session 3268

The Dynamics Concept Inventory Assessment Test: A Progress Report and Some Results

Gary L. Gray, Francesco Costanzo, Don Evans, Phillip Cornwell, Brian Self, Jill L. Lane The Pennsylvania State University / The Pennsylvania State University / Arizona State University / Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology / United State Air Force Academy / The Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

Concept inventories are excellent instruments with which to validate the effective- ness of new teaching methodologies and curricular innovations. At the 2003 ASEE Annual Conference, we revealed that we were developing a Dynamics Concept Inven- tory (DCI) test and we presented our progress toward the creation of this test. Since that time, we have made substantial progress toward a release version of the DCI. In this paper, we will present the results of administering the DCI to over 450 students at a large public university and at a small private university and we will describe the final steps we have taken in getting to version 1.0 (the first public release) of the test.

Introduction: What is the DCI and Why are We Creating It

Concept inventories are an invaluable tool for the assessment of student learning and curricular innovations. Student misconceptions are not random, but are generally the result of a deficiency in their understanding of fundamental principles. The source of these misunderstandings, as identified by Clement [1] and others (see, for example references [2–7]), can be traced to deeply-seated preconceptions that make the complete understanding of fundamental principles very difficult. In order to create a new conceptual framework and to displace the existing one that has been ingrained over many years, new teaching methodologies have to be established. Concept inventories are an excellent instrument with which to validate the effectiveness of these new methodologies. At the 2003 ASEE Annual Conference, we revealed that we were developing a Dynamics Concept Inventory (DCI) test and we presented our progress toward the creation of this test [8]. In that paper, we described those concepts that were perceived by dynamics instructors to cause problems for students. Since that time, the authors have done extensive testing of the DCI and have completed its first public release (in January 2005). The body of research knowledge on student learning of Newtonian mechanics, including both kinematics and kinetics, has become quite rich in the last 15 years, but, because of its newness, this knowledge generally remains unfamiliar to most instructors whether their academic home is in a physics department or an engineering department. Interestingly, it is

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Lane, J., & Evans, D., & Gray, G., & Costanzo, F., & Cornwell, P., & Self, B. (2005, June), The Dynamics Concept Inventory Assessment Test: A Progress Report And Some Results Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15378