According to Bruner, learners acquire concepts by setting forth tentative hypothesis about the attributes that seem to define a concept and then testing specific instances against these hypotheses (Driscoll, 2005, p. 236). I wanted to allow the students an oportunity and a way of checking the efficiency and reliability of using dimensional analysis.
After the students had an opportunity to work through some questions with me and on their own, I had two students come to the board to work some questions in front of the class. One student was to use the ratio to proportion method, while the other student was to use dimentional analysis. Students were asked to "hypothesize" which student could come to the correct answer quicker. Most students felt that using dimentional analysis would be quicker. The ending result was that the student using dimentional analysis came to the correct answer faster than the student using ration to proportion, by approximately 15 seconds. This proved to the students their hypothesis was correct and also proved the efficiency and reliability of using dimentional analysis.
After the students had an opportunity to work through some questions with me and on their own, I had two students come to the board to work some questions in front of the class. One student was to use the ratio to proportion method, while the other student was to use dimentional analysis. Students were asked to "hypothesize" which student could come to the correct answer quicker. Most students felt that using dimentional analysis would be quicker. The ending result was that the student using dimentional analysis came to the correct answer faster than the student using ration to proportion, by approximately 15 seconds. This proved to the students their hypothesis was correct and also proved the efficiency and reliability of using dimentional analysis.