Ranking Task Exercises in Physics

By T.L. O'Kuma

This book features Ranking Task exercises - an innovative type of conceptual exercise that challenges readers to make comparative judgments about a set of variations on a particular physical situation. Two-hundred-and-eighteen exercises encourage readers to formulate their own ideas about the behavior of a physical system, correct any misconceptions they may have, and build a better conceptual foundation of physics. KEY TOPICS: Covering as many topic domains in physics as possible, the book contains Kinematics Ranking Tasks, Force Ranking Tasks, Projectile and Other Two-Dimensional Motion Ranking Tasks, Work-Energy Ranking Tasks, Impulse-Momentum Ranking Tasks, Rotation Ranking Tasks, SHM and Properties of Matter Ranking Tasks, Heat and Thermodynamics Ranking Tasks, Electrostatics Ranking Tasks, DC Circuit Ranking Tasks, Magnetism and Electromagnetism Ranking Tasks, and Wave and Optics Ranking Tasks. MARKET: For anyone who wants a better conceptual understanding of the many areas of physics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 013144851X
• ISBN13: 9780131448513
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.4" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Valuable resource for teaching physics...

...forces the student to think about what is actually happening in any given situation as opposed to simply remembering what equations they're supposed to use...two complaints...first, too short...should have at least five times as many problems over a broad range of difficulty...second, it would benefit from a "hints" page...some students "freeze up" when asked to actually think about a problem...a hint on where to begin...

would be great if the book was in color instead of black and white.

This book is fun. I take it with me to the 8 am - 11:40 am, Mon-Wed-Fri physics class. Before the class starts and everyone looks bored and sleepy, I open the book and ask my neighbors to rank a task, randomly picked. Some guess. Some ponder. Some become awake:) We all get excited. With clear eyes and sudden splash of curiosity, we are pre-cooked and ready to be grilled hard on the stove of physics:)

An Excellent Teaching Tool

In the interest of self-disclosure I should note that I am a co-author of one of the ranking tasks in this book. That having been said, I have found this collection of assessment tools to be a valuable addition to the various pencil and paper activities I use in my physics classes. The idea of the ranking task is to have a student compare a umber of physically similar systems that are allowed to vary in only one or two ways...

Ranking task Exercises in Physics

New approach to old thinking. Great learning tool. Made sense on difficult concepts.

A very useful book.

Students's preconcetions (misconceptions, alternative/naive/intuitive conceptions) are generally main obstacles of conceptual learning. This book merely aims to overcome that problem by providing a task of ranking for a set of physical situations. Topics are; Kinematics, Forces, 2-D motion, Work-energy, Impulse-momentum, Rotational motion, Properties of matter, Thermodynamics, Waves, Electrostatics, DC and resistive circuits,...