PHYSICS PROBLEM SOLVING

(^) Alternate Claim provides a group with a means to rectify incorrect Claims. This, I
believe, is a part of creative controversy: A student disagrees with another student who
makes an initially incorrect Claim. The Alternate Claim allows for verbalization of the
disagreement and correction of the Claim. The Modified Claim, on the other hand,
allows a group to fill in the details of an initially correct claim or to clarify a “fuzzy”
initial claim.
In Table 4-13, the use of Alternate Claims and Modified Claims is sorted by
course quarter (1041 and 1042). Most of the groups that used Alternate Claims were in
the first quarter of the sequence. Three groups (4B, 2B, and 2A) of the four with the
lowest claim quality were first quarter groups. Only Group 5B is from the second
quarter, and they are responsible for the solo entry in the lower right quadrant of the
table. I can hypothesize that with time, students make more correct claims as they
understand the physics better.
(^1041)
9 Groups (64%) 5 Groups (36%^1042 )
Use no A9 Groups (64%) lternate Claims 5 Groups (56%) (^) 4 Groups (80%)
Use A5 Groups (36%) lternate Claims 4 Groups (44%) (^) 1 Groups (20%)
(^) Table 4-13. Alternate Claim Use by Course Quarter.