Exploring student difficulties with pressure in a fluid

Abstract

Our research group is developing a standardized fluids assessment, covering buoyancy and pressure. Much of the prior research of student difficulties with pressure involves young children. Many of the questions on the beta-version of the assessment used this past year were designed to test the prevalence of those difficulties in college students. In this paper we will describe several pressure-related assessment questions, the misconceptions they probe, and the preliminary results from the beta version of the assessment.