The case of the “not-so-short” circuit

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2010

Abstract

One cool aspect of being a physics teacher is helping students to appreciate the role of hands-on activities as scientific evidence. Recently, “Anna,” one of my pre-service science teachers, learned this lesson well. She correctly challenged my idealized explanation of short circuits. As a result, I was forced to reflect on issues of scale, pedagogical oversimplifications, and free exploration as essential components in conceptual physics learning.

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