How in-depth is your child’s understanding?

In H2 Physics, students will encounter questions that test for depth of understanding, as opposed to the simple recall of facts.

The shift in focus to depth happens usually when students graduate from IP year 2 to IP year 3. Many students struggle with the transition because they have not yet understood what ‘in-depth’ learning looks like. At this stage, they are used to memorizing formulas and applying them directly. This can be done with little to no understanding of what the formulas actually mean.

Let me illustrate using Newton’s Second Law as an example. (This is a concept that is taught in IP year 3, and forms the foundation of many other concepts learnt in JC)

Ask students to define Newton’s Second Law, and 90% will tell you “F = ma”. While not wrong, this is a very surface-level answer that lacks depth, it just shows that the student has memorized the equation F = ma.

The actual phrasing is “the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the resultant force acting on the object, and occurs in the same direction of the resultant force.” That’s quite a mouthful. How well do they understand this statement though?

Probe a little further and ask them, what does F = ma *mean*?

Many of them will tell you “force equals mass times acceleration”.

This is 100% wrong.

Using a mind map we can visualize the meaning of this equation better, it describes a cause-and-effect relationship:

Cause and effect relationship between Net Force and Acceleration

We can then expand on this idea. Force in the equation refers to “Resultant Force” (Also known as Net Force). What does Resultant / Net force mean and how do we calculate it? We learn that resultant or net force refers to the amount of unbalanced force acting on a body. a free body diagram is useful for visualizing how various forces come together to produce resultant force. Let’s put this down on the mind map as well

Expanding our understanding of Net Force

We can then think about the implications of acceleration – what does it mean and what does it relate to? We have learnt in Kinematics that acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, which corresponds to the gradient of the velocity-time graph. The formula for calculating acceleration is

a = (v-u)/t

Furthermore there are some special values of acceleration that we should take note of, e.g. acceleration of free-fall g = 9.81ms^-2 , constant velocity → a = 0. We can include this on our mind map as well, giving us a good overview of *how these concepts relate to one another*

Visualising Newton’s Second Law as the link between Forces and Kinematics

I hope this blog post helps parents and students understand the level of depth required for consistent success at A levels. Unfortunately, many students are unaware of this and instead rely on memorization and mental shortcuts since these skills (often taught in tuition centres) have aided them greatly in the past.

However if they are to succeed in H2 physics, a shift in mindset is required, sooner or later. The longer you wait, the harder it is to change one’s habits.

Make the shift early! Contact us to find out more.