How to Better Understand Motion

Many students misunderstand concepts about motion and find it difficult to develop a better understanding of this topic. This book has reported on the investigation of the effectiveness of a constructivist-based laboratory to improve students¿ conceptual understanding of motion in tertiary physics classes in Thailand. These Thai students¿ alternative conceptions are motion in one dimension, circular motion and projectile motion. All activities were based on the constructivist principles that knowledge is not passively received from the environment, but students actively construct themselves and knowledge is an adaptive process that students link their prior experiences (their heads are not empty), to construct their knowledge that relates to their world.In this constructivist-based laboratory, students themselves apply the experimental process by designing objectives, implementing experiments, interpreting the results and conclusions. So, by doing experiments themselves, students should better understand motion: Experience (our experience) is to learn from our mistakes; Knowledge is to learn from the mistakes of others; Mistakes of yesterday's lesson is the lesson for today.