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ERIC Number: EJ1331100
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Nov
Pages: 3
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0031-921X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
What Does It Mean to "Make Sense" of Physics?
Odden, Tor Ole
Physics Teacher, v59 n8 p596-598 Nov 2021
What does it mean to "make sense" of physics? It's not a simple question. Most people have an intuitive feeling for when things do (or do not) make sense to them. But putting this feeling into words--especially actionable words--is another task entirely. Generally speaking, there are two ways in which we commonly use the term "make sense." The first connotes reasonability: for example, "it makes sense to start saving for college early." Of the two, this is likely the more familiar meaning for the average physics teacher, since evaluating reasonability is a habit that we commonly teach in physics problem solving. We regularly instruct our students to check if their answers "make sense," and there are numerous dependable strategies for this kind of evaluative sense-making such as unit checks, limiting-case analysis, order-of-magnitude estimation, and qualitatively examining relationships between variables.
American Association of Physics Teachers. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740. Tel: 301-209-3300; Fax: 301-209-0845; e-mail: pubs@aapt.org; Web site: http://aapt.scitation.org/journal/pte
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A