physics problem solving rubric

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Thesis Detail Page

Primary details, citation formats.

%A Jennifer Docktor %T Development and Validation of a Physics Problem-Solving Assessment Rubric %R Dissertation %D September 24, 2009 %P 420 %I University of Minnesota %U http://groups.physics.umn.edu/physed/People/Docktor_dissertation_submitted%20final.pdf %O Physics and Astronomy %O application/pdf %O Dissertation

%0 Thesis %A Docktor, Jennifer %D September 24, 2009 %T Development and Validation of a Physics Problem-Solving Assessment Rubric %B Physics and Astronomy %I University of Minnesota %P 420 %8 September 24, 2009 %9 Dissertation %U http://groups.physics.umn.edu/physed/People/Docktor_dissertation_submitted%20final.pdf

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Similar Materials

Development and validation of a pedagogy-specific problem-solving process rubric

Development of an Introductory Physics Problem-Solving Assessment Tool

Assessment of Student Problem Solving Processes

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iRubric: Physics Problem Solving rubric

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Examples of Rubric Creation

Creating a rubric takes time and requires thought and experimentation. Here you can see the steps used to create two kinds of rubric: one for problems in a physics exam for a small, upper-division physics course, and another for an essay assignment in a large, lower-division sociology course.

Physics Problems

In STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), assignments tend to be analytical and problem-based. Holistic rubrics can be an efficient, consistent, and fair way to grade a problem set. An analytical rubric often gives a more clear picture of what a student should direct their future learning efforts on. Since holistic rubrics try to label overall understanding, they can lead to more regrade requests when compared to analytical rubric with more explicit criteria. When starting to grade a problem, it is important to think about the relevant conceptual ingredients in the solution. Then look at a sample of student work to get a feel for student mistakes. Decide what rubric you will use (e.g., holistic or analytic, and how many points). Apply the holistic rubric by marking comments and sorting the students’ assignments into stacks (e.g., five stacks if using a five-point scale). Finally, check the stacks for consistency and mark the scores. The following is a sample homework problem from a UC Berkeley Physics Department undergraduate course in mechanics.

Homework Problem

Learning objective.

Solve for position and speed along a projectile’s trajectory.

Desired Traits: Conceptual Elements Needed for the Solution

• Decompose motion into vertical and horizontal axes.
• Identify that the maximum height occurs when the vertical velocity is 0.
• Apply kinematics equation with g as the acceleration to solve for the time and height.
• Evaluate the numerical expression.

A note on analytic rubrics: If you decide you feel more comfortable grading with an analytic rubric, you can assign a point value to each concept. The drawback to this method is that it can sometimes unfairly penalize a student who has a good understanding of the problem but makes a lot of minor errors. Because the analytic method tends to have many more parts, the method can take quite a bit more time to apply. In the end, your analytic rubric should give results that agree with the common-sense assessment of how well the student understood the problem. This sense is well captured by the holistic method.

Holistic Rubric

A holistic rubric, closely based on a rubric by Bruce Birkett and Andrew Elby:

[a] This policy especially makes sense on exam problems, for which students are under time pressure and are more likely to make harmless algebraic mistakes. It would also be reasonable to have stricter standards for homework problems.

Analytic Rubric

The following is an analytic rubric that takes the desired traits of the solution and assigns point values to each of the components. Note that the relative point values should reflect the importance in the overall problem. For example, the steps of the problem solving should be worth more than the final numerical value of the solution. This rubric also provides clarity for where students are lacking in their current understanding of the problem.

Try to avoid penalizing multiple times for the same mistake by choosing your evaluation criteria to be related to distinct learning outcomes. In designing your rubric, you can decide how finely to evaluate each component. Having more possible point values on your rubric can give more detailed feedback on a student’s performance, though it typically takes more time for the grader to assess.

Of course, problems can, and often do, feature the use of multiple learning outcomes in tandem. When a mistake could be assigned to multiple criteria, it is advisable to check that the overall problem grade is reasonable with the student’s mastery of the problem. Not having to decide how particular mistakes should be deducted from the analytic rubric is one advantage of the holistic rubric. When designing problems, it can be very beneficial for students not to have problems with several subparts that rely on prior answers. These tend to disproportionately skew the grades of students who miss an ingredient early on. When possible, consider making independent problems for testing different learning outcomes.

Sociology Research Paper

An introductory-level, large-lecture course is a difficult setting for managing a student research assignment. With the assistance of an instructional support team that included a GSI teaching consultant and a UC Berkeley librarian [b] , sociology lecturer Mary Kelsey developed the following assignment:

This was a lengthy and complex assignment worth a substantial portion of the course grade. Since the class was very large, the instructor wanted to minimize the effort it would take her GSIs to grade the papers in a manner consistent with the assignment’s learning objectives. For these reasons Dr. Kelsey and the instructional team gave a lot of forethought to crafting a detailed grading rubric.

Desired Traits

• Use and interpretation of data
• Reflection on personal experiences
• Application of course readings and materials
• Organization, writing, and mechanics

For this assignment, the instructional team decided to grade each trait individually because there seemed to be too many independent variables to grade holistically. They could have used a five-point scale, a three-point scale, or a descriptive analytic scale. The choice depended on the complexity of the assignment and the kind of information they wanted to convey to students about their work.

Below are three of the analytic rubrics they considered for the Argument trait and a holistic rubric for all the traits together. Lastly you will find the entire analytic rubric, for all five desired traits, that was finally used for the assignment. Which would you choose, and why?

Five-Point Scale

Three-point scale, simplified three-point scale, numbers replaced with descriptive terms.

For some assignments, you may choose to use a holistic rubric, or one scale for the whole assignment. This type of rubric is particularly useful when the variables you want to assess just cannot be usefully separated. We chose not to use a holistic rubric for this assignment because we wanted to be able to grade each trait separately, but we’ve completed a holistic version here for comparative purposes.

Final Analytic Rubric

This is the rubric the instructor finally decided to use. It rates five major traits, each on a five-point scale. This allowed for fine but clear distinctions in evaluating the students’ final papers.

[b] These materials were developed during UC Berkeley’s 2005–2006 Mellon Library/Faculty Fellowship for Undergraduate Research program. Members of the instructional team who worked with Lecturer Kelsey in developing the grading rubric included Susan Haskell-Khan, a GSI Center teaching consultant and doctoral candidate in history, and Sarah McDaniel, a teaching librarian with the Doe/Moffitt Libraries.

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Problem-Solving Rubric

Rubric categories.

We are developing an easy-to-use problem-solving assessment rubric to assess students' problem-solving skills based on their written problem solutions. The rubric has been tested for validity, reliability, and utility and that work is described in the doctoral dissertation of Jennifer Docktor (click here) . The rubric has five categories:

Useful Description: representing information from the problem statement symbolically, visually, and/or in writing

Physics Approach: selecting relevant physics concepts and principles to apply to the problem

Specific Application of Physics: applying physics concepts and principles to the specific conditions in the problem

Mathematical Procedures: applying math rules and procedures in the context of physics

Logical Progression: the overall solution process is clear, focused toward a goal, and logically connected (consistent)

Latest version of the rubric

Rubric version 4.4 (9/16/2008) in Word or PDF

Rubric training

The rubric can be used either for research purposes or for general assessment purposes. For research purposes, a high inter-rater reliability is important. We have developed training materials to help novices learn to use the rubric for either purpose.

General purpose rubric training materials PDF

These materials help people learn how to apply the problem-solving rubric to score students' written problem solutions.

Research purpose rubric training materials PDF Sample students' solutions

This is a more rigorous training process to achieve a high inter-rater reliability. Some repetition of the training process may be necessary. Sample student solutions used in the training and instructions are included.

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Physics Problem Solving Test and Coding Rubric

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Date created: 2023-04-24 02:02 PM | Last Updated: 2023-08-03 08:30 AM

Identifier : DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/GSMVR

Category: Project

Description: Description of an instrument to assess students' physics problem solving abilities based on open-ended answers. Feel free to use (and adapt) this instrument for your own research.

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Introduction

This instrument requires students to clearly describe in full sentences how they would solve four well-defined physics problems without going through the entire problem solving process, i.e., without explicitly solving the problem. The problem solving process of experts roughly consists of four steps: conceptual analysis, strategic analysis, quantitative analysis and meta-analysis (e.…

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THE PHYSICS CLASSROOM TUTORIAL

A set of instructional pages written in an easy-to-understand language and complemented by graphics and Check Your Understanding sections. An ideal starting location for those grasping for understanding or searching for answers.

PHYSICS SIMULATIONS

The Physics Interactives includes a large collection of HTML5 interactive physics simulations. Designed with tablets such as the iPad and with Chromebooks in mind, this user-friendly section is filled with skill-building exercises, physics simulations, and game-like challenges.

PHYSICS VIDEO TUTORIAL

Our Video Tutorial provides a video-based alternative to the written Tutorial above. We aim to present relatively short, highly-organized presentations with a strong graphical component on discrete topics. Watch them on our site or follow the links to YouTube. We add videos quite frequently so stop back by if you don't find what you are looking for. Or subscribe to our YouTube channel,  tap the bell , and receive notifications when new videos come out.

MULTIMEDIA PHYSICS STUDIOS

A large collection of GIF animations and QuickTime movies designed to demonstrate physics principles in a visual manner. Each animation is accompanied by explanations and links to further information.

CONCEPT BUILDERS

Have you tried a Concept Builder lately? You should. This growing collection of cognitively-rich exercises will focus student attention on discrete learning goals. Filled with interactive elements, this section is the perfect tool for getting students thinking about the meaning of concepts. Perfect for students and 1:1 classrooms using iPads, Chromebooks, and the like. And for Chemistry types, we've added a large collection of Chemistry Concept Builders. 

MINDS ON PHYSICS - VERSION 5   

Minds On Physics - Version 5 is the HTML5 version of Minds On Physics that replaces our App and Legacy versions. Relying on a large bank of carefully crafted questions, Minds On Physics seeks to improve students' conceptions of physics. "MOPs" combines interactive questioning modules with a thorough, question-specific Help system to engage students in an exercise in thinking, reflecting, and learning. Version 5 is our best-yet version of Minds On Physics. There is a fully functional free version and a paid version that integrates seamlessly with our Task Tracker system and offers some rather enticing features.  

THE CALCULATOR PAD

Version 2 of the Calculator Pad is now available. Our newest version includes >2500 Physics and Chemistry problems organized into >250 ready-to-use problem sets. Numerical information is randomly-generated. An answer box allows students to solve and check their answers. Most problems are accompanied  by an audio-guided solution that explains how to solve a similar problem while hilighting the habits that can be adopted for solving any problem. Teachers with Task Tracker accounts can modify problems and problem sets and even create their own problems. Task Tracker also allows teachers to assign problems to their students and track their progress. 

CONCEPT CHECKERS  

Concept Checkers were built to coordinate with the Physics Interactives section of our website. Relying upon our Task Tracker tool to deliver questions, check answers, and track student progress, a Concept Checker is designed to coordinate with an interactive simulation. Use it as a follow-up check to understanding after exploring the simulation. Most sims are accompanied by a Concept Checker. Some sims have Task Tracker code built into the simulation. But not all sims will have a Concept Checker.  Concept Checkers can be used with or without a Task Tracker account. 

THE SCIENCE REASONING CENTER

The Science Reasoning Center is our most recent upgrade. This section includes about 70 activities that are perfect for encouraging scientific reasoning skills. Students use science and engineering practices, combined with cross cutting science concepts and core ideas from the disciplines of physics (and chemistry) to analyze phenomenon, experiments, and data presentations. We broke ground in April of 2023; we will continue work throughout the 2023-24 school year.

THE REVIEW SESSION

A collection of pages with questions and answers/explanations which serve as reviews or practice. Each review complements a chapter from The Physics Classroom Tutorial.

PHYSICS HELP

A variety of question-and-answer pages which target specific concepts and skills. Topics range from the graphical analysis of motion and drawing free body diagrams to a discussion of vectors and vector addition.

ACT TEST CENTER

Calling all high school juniors: You've trusted The Physics Classroom to help prepare you for that unit exam in physics. Why not trust us to help prepare you for the biggest test of the year - the ACT test? That's right. Let the TPC help you with the ACT.

CURRICULUM CORNER

A collection of classroom ready worksheets for use by teachers with their classes. Pages are synchronized to readings from The Physics Classroom Tutorial and to assignments of The Minds On Physics Internet Modules. And now teachers can purchase The Solutions Guide containing complete answers, explanations and solutions to all worksheets. This is a section of great usefulness to teachers and of little interest to students. The Solutions Guide is available as a Digital Download.

LESSON PLANS AND PACING GUIDES

We are building a collection of lesson plans and pacing guides for multiple units for a variety of course types. The lesson plans will provide teachers with a concrete demonstration of how resources at The Physics Classroom can be incorporated into a course. We will also have corresponding pre-built courses available for Task Tracker users that mirror the lesson plans viewed in this section. These pre-built courses allow teachers to easily hit the ground running  with their Task Tracker classes. We expect this project to be completed by August 1, 2024. Until then, we will release content incrementally as we complete it. Teachers can tap the link and view samples of what we currently have completed.

TEACHER PRESENTATION PACK

Our Teacher Presentation Pack is a downloadable product that includes nearly 190 Microsoft PowerPoint slide decks, about 170 animations and videos in .mp4 and .gif formats, too-many-to-count stand-alone images, and a Lesson Notes page for every slide deck. The slide decks are compatible with Google Slides. We did our best to make the product ready-to-use and at the same time fully customizable. It's a great tool in the toolbox for any early-career teacher, cross-over teacher, or even veteran teacher.

QUESTION BANK

Writing good tests and quizzes for your physics class just got a whole lot easier! With The Physics Classroom's Question Bank, physics teachers can quickly put together multiple choice and free-response quizzes and tests that target concepts discussed at The Physics Classroom website. The Question Bank is available for purchase as a both a CD resource and as a Digital Download. Use of the Question Bank requires the Microsoft Word application. (Answers are NOT included on the Question Bank.)

NGSS CORNER

Our newest section, the NGSS Corner assists teachers of Physics and Physical Science in aligning their curricula with the Next Generation Science Standards. Numerous resources are identified and their alignment with the NGSS is described.

TEACHER TOOLKITS

The Teacher Toolkits provide teachers with packages of online resources (simulations, movies, animations, demonstration ideas, etc.) that are organized around a topic and a set of learning objectives. These resources, when combined with the numerous resources on our own site, allow teachers to plan high-quality, engaging instruction and to map out a curriculum that is NGSS-based.

THE LABORATORY

While you explore the approximately 150 labs here at The Laboratory, you will likely generate some questions about how they are used and how you can use them. This page, and the pages it links to, are hoped to provide some answers to those questions.

THE PHOTO GALLERY

The Photo Gallery provides teachers a toolbox of physics-relevant photos from the wealth of photos on Flickr. The Photo Gallery offers teachers three things: access to photos, organized by topic; a collection of nearly 30 galleries; and an invitation to join this exciting project of capturing and sharing physics phenomenon with a camera. Of course, students are welcome to participate as well.