This study investigates the understanding of 18 first-year undergraduate students when simultaneously presented with two contrasting dynamical situations: the idealized (without air resistance) and real-world cases of balls being dropped or thrown. Previous work has shown that getting students to recognize flaws in their mental models helps them…

Describes a study of the mental processes college students use in thinking about speed. Piagetian-type tasks dealing with speed, time, and distance were used in an individual interview format. Males outperformed females on tasks relating to speed, but not on the other tasks. (TW)