Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
Student Pre- and Post- Test
1. The term used to describe the stiffness of a spring is known as the ____.
a. Spring Diameter
c. Spring Hardness
b. Spring Body
d. Spring Constant
2. The British physicist ________ identified the law of proportion between spring load, stiffness, and
displacement.
a. Robert Hooke
c. Stephen Hawking
b. Isaac Newton
d. Charles Darwin
3. When a mass attached to a spring vibrates back and forth, at maximum displacement the
a. Acceleration reaches a minimum
c. Net force reaches a minimum
b. Velocity reaches a minimum
d. Net force reaches zero
4. When a mass is hung from a suspended spring, the spring ______.
a. Is plastically deformed
c. Is elastically deformed
b. Stays the same
d. Shrinks
5. As the distance a spring is stretched increases, the spring’s restoring force _______.
a. Decreases
c. Stays the same
b. Increases
d. There is no restoring force
6. Stress is
a. The strain per unit length
c. Applied force per cross-sectional area
b. The same as force
d. Ratio of the change in length
7. Strain is
a. The stress per unit area
b. The ratio of change in length to the original length
c. The ration of stress to elastic modulus
d. The applied force per unit area
8. A slinky has a spring constant of 2 N/m. If the slinky is displaced 5 m, what is the restoring force of the
slinky?
a. 2.0 N
c. 5.0 N
b. 10.0 N.
d. 20.0 N
9. The restoring force on the throttle return spring in your car is 200 N. If the spring has been displaced 4 cm,
what is the spring constant of the throttle return spring?
a. 50 N/cm
c. 800 N/cm
b. 200 N/cm
d. 0 N/cm
10. Engineers care about the ___________ of a product.
a. Functionality
c. Design
b. Appearance
d. All of these
11. True or False: All engineers are nerds with thick glasses and pocket protectors, working on stuff no one
cares about.
1
Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
12. A mass attached to a spring vibrates back and forth. At the equilibrium position, the
a. Acceleration reaches a maximum
c. Net force reaches a maximum
b. Velocity reaches a maximum
d. Velocity reaches zero
13. If a force of 50 N stretches a spring 0.10 m, what is the spring constant?
a. 5 N/m
c. 10 N/m
b. 500 N/m
d. 0 N/m
14. A 0.20 kg mass suspended from a spring moves with simple harmonic motion. At the instant the mass is
displaced from equilibrium by -0.05 m, what is its acceleration? (The spring constant is 10.0 N/m.)
a. 1200 m/s2
c. 10 m/s2
b. 41 m/s2
d. 2.5 m/s2
15. How much displacement will a coil spring with a spring constant of 120 N/m achieve if it is stretched by a
60 N force?
a. 0.5 m
c. 4 m
b. 2 m
d. 7000 m
16. For a mass hanging from a spring, the maximum displacement the spring is stretched or compressed from
its equilibrium position is its
a. Amplitude
c. Frequency
b. Period
d. Acceleration
2
Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table 1: Student Pre-Test Results
Directions: Convert each student’s raw score to a percentage (e.g., if student answered 6 questions
correctly out of 15 questions, then the student’s score is 40%). In the table below, indicate the number of
students in each percentage range group. Generate these percentages based ONLY on the responses to the
test questions that you generated (ie., do not include the responses to the “common questions”).
Total number of students taking the Pre-Test (should be the same students who took the post-test): __123__
Grade on Pre-test
90-100%
80-89%
70-79%
60-69%
50-59%
40-49%
30-39%
20-29%
10-19%
0-9%
Number of Students
0
3
19
71
26
3
1
0
0
0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table 2: Student Post-Test Results
Directions: Convert each student’s raw score to a percentage (e.g., if student answered 6 questions
correctly out of 15 questions, then the student’s score is 40%). In the table below, indicate the number of
students in each percentage range group. Generate these percentages based ONLY on the responses to the
test questions that you generated (ie., do not include the responses to common questions).
Total number of students taking the Post-Test (should be the same students who took the pre-test): __123__
Grade on Post-test
90-100%
80-89%
70-79%
60-69%
50-59%
40-49%
30-39%
20-29%
10-19%
0-9%
Number of Students
6
50
49
16
1
1
0
0
0
0
3
Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
Table 3: Student Responses to the 9 Common Questions
*Number of students who took the pre-test (should be the same students who took the post-test): ___123__
*Number of students who took the post-test (should be the same students who took the pre-test): __123___
Question
Pre-test responses
Post-test responses
Common Question 1
#students who answered “a”:
#students who answered “b”:
#students who answered “c”:
16
10
91
12
10
95
Common Question 2
#students who gave no examples:
#students who gave 1 example:
#students who gave 2 -3 examples:
#students who gave 4-6 examples:
#students who gave 7-10 examples:
6
4
24
49
41
0
0
14
47
66
Common Question 3
#students who gave no examples:
#students who gave 1 example:
#students who gave 2 examples:
#students who gave 3 examples:
#students who gave 4 examples:
#students who gave 5 examples:
#students who gave >5 examples:
40
43
23
11
6
0
2
9
31
31
36
15
8
4
Common Question 4
#students who gave no examples:
#students who gave 1 example:
#students who gave 2 examples:
#students who gave 3 examples:
#students who gave 4 examples:
#students who gave 5 examples:
15
48
17
22
13
11
6
22
17
30
20
31
Common Question 5
#students who gave no examples:
#students who gave 1 example:
#students who gave 2-3 examples:
#students who gave 4-5 examples:
#students who gave >5 examples:
29
18
39
18
19
7
18
46
25
27
Common Question 6
#students who answered “a”:
#students who answered “b”:
#students who answered “c”:
#students who answered “d”:
4
1
25
92
4
1
30
87
4
Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
Common Question 7
#students who answered “a”:
#students who answered “b”:
#students who answered “c”:
#students who answered “d”:
7
47
33
30
7
45
32
33
Common Question 8
#students who answered “a”:
#students who answered “b”:
#students who answered “c”:
#students who answered “d”:
35
55
18
8
28
56
24
8
Common Question 9
Teacher should mail
student response sheets for #9 to
Cheryl Page (see mailing address
below)***
***Mail student response sheets to Common Question #9 to Cheryl Page (Mail Stop 3126, WERC 309, TAMU, College
Station, TX 77843-3126). If you prefer to fax, Cheryl’s fax number is 979-862-1185. Please email Cheryl
(capage@tamu.edu) to let her know that your student response sheets are coming!
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Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
My students performed significantly better on the post-test than the pre-test. The average pre-test
score was a 73, while the average post-test score was an 88. Every single student showed improvement on
the post-test scores. I found that my students struggled most with the conceptual questions I asked. This
conceptual struggle wasn’t really much of a surprise, as that is pretty consistent with my other exams. My
students were most successful on the questions that required fact recall than any other type of question. I
am constantly striving to force my students to apply and explain the concepts behind their observations.
The students did demonstrate a firm grasp on the mathematical concepts covered in the unit, which was a
pleasant surprise. I was very pleased with my students’ final scores on the post-test. Overall, I feel that my
students truly demonstrated mastery of the concept and content that we covered.
My students were not really aware of an engineer’s general purpose before we started the project,
as is evidence by the fact that my students had particular difficulty answering question 3 (asking what
kinds of problems engineers solve) on the pre-test. However, after discussing multiple types of engineers
during the project, the students were able to identify quite a few more problems during the post-test. On
the pre-test, my students’ responses to questions 2-5 were based on hints the students drew from the
questions on the pre-test, as well as from hints they were able to beg out of their teacher or peers. The
student responses on the post-test showed more thought-out answers. My students appeared to draw from
the knowledge they had learned, and while the specific answers might not have changed significantly, the
overall tone of their answers showed increased background knowledge and a deeper understanding. I was
particularly surprised that the number of students who were non-interested in attending college did not
change over the course of this project. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see an increase in the
number of students who were interested in engineering as well as a decrease in the number of students
adamantly opposed to engineering. When comparing the student responses from pre-test to post-test,
6
Esther Johnson
Del Rio High School, SFDR-CISD
Timeframe: early December
Total # Instructional Days: 6
Subject: Physics
Grade Level: 11-12
students appeared to be less antagonistic toward the field of engineering, and more willing to consider it a
real possibility for their own future.
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