(This paper is a PowerPoint presentation.)

We have asked students to rank ten written descriptions of the atom as more or less plausible as part of a survey we have administered to beginning university physics students at the Ohio State University. The student opinions seem to fall naturally into three classes—clearly reasonable models (generally agreed to be plausible), a muddled group in no certain order, and clearly unreasonable models (generally agreed to be implausible). Our poster will discuss these student ideas.

There has so far been very little work on student understanding of the broad underpinnings of quantum mechanics. We report here on our preliminary work examining students’ knowledge of quantum phenomena before college instruction. We have interviewed many students and used their responses to questions to try to categorize their knowledge and to see how it differs from expert perceptions. Students entering the university exhibit quite limited knowledge of quantum phenomena. We believe that some student ideas are robust and that many ideas are constructed in response to questioning.

The interaction of light and matter is not well understood by introductory students, but underpins the understanding of quantum phenomena characterizing the twentieth century revolution in understanding of Nature. We study student ideas in order to categorize their ideas and find ways to help them incorporate correct understanding.