Speaker
Samanthi Wickramarachchi
(Virginia Commonwealth University)
Description
The slope of a graph shows up everywhere in physics, whether we call it velocity, acceleration, mass or another rate of change. Yet, for many students, connecting the simple idea of “rise over run” to its real physical meaning is surprisingly difficult. They often see slope as just a line on a graph rather than a powerful tool for describing how one quantity changes with another. Helping students make this connection is one of the ongoing challenges we face in physics teaching. In this presentation, I will share several approaches we have tried in our labs to make slope interpretation more intuitive, from hands-on experiments to guided discussions, and reflect on what worked best in sparking student understanding.
Primary author
Samanthi Wickramarachchi
(Virginia Commonwealth University)
