20140824

FCI pre-test comparison: Cuesta College versus UC-Davis (fall semester 2014)

Students at both Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo, CA) and the University of California at Davis were administered the 30-question Force Concept Inventory (Doug Hestenes, et al.) during the first week of instruction.

Cuesta College
Physics 205A
Fall semester 2014    
UC-Davis
Physics 7B
Summer session II 2002
N73 students*76 students*
low 2 2
mean    10.1 +/- 5.4 9.1 +/- 4.3
high2927

*Excludes students with negative informed consent forms (*.pdf)

Student's t-test of the null hypothesis results in p = 0.18 (t = 1.33, sdev = 4.84, degrees of freedom = 147), thus there is no significant difference between Cuesta College and UC-Davis FCI pre-test scores.

Later this semester (fall 2014), a comparison will be made between Cuesta College and UC-Davis FCI post-tests, along with their pre- to post-test gains.

D. Hestenes, M. Wells, and G. Swackhamer, Arizona State University, "Force Concept Inventory," Phys. Teach. 30, 141-158 (1992).
Development of the FCI, a 30-question survey of basic Newtonian mechanics concepts.

Previous FCI results:

No comments: