Students Coming to Understand Why Objects Fall Together

Research on the teaching and learning of physics suggests principles that can guide the development of classroom environments where students have the opportunity to take on a more active role in their own learning and to develop a robust conceptual understanding. Some of these principles include: (1) students' prior knowledge influences their learning; (2) interaction with tools facilitates learning (and these tools can include the curriculum materials, hands-on apparatus, computer data collection and analysis programs and simulations, etc.); (3) students' learning is mediated by social interactions; and (4) classroom norms structure student interactions, discourse and learning. In this talk I will illustrate these principles by showing snippets of video from a college physics course where students (prospective elementary teachers) are trying to make sense of why (in cases where air resistance is negligible) heavy and light objects fall together. Audience members will be actively involved in discussing and analyzing parts of the video (transcripts will be provided).