The units in Physics Problems in High School

Abstract

Solving exercises and science problems promotes the development
of abilities related with the elaboration of new operating schemes
as the consolidation of structures that have been built along the
school work of the student. One of the aspects to be taken into
account in the development of structures is that one referred to the
conceptualization of the measurement and units system. Through
the analysis of some problematic situations faced by high school
students of first year (almost 15 years old), higher level, we observe
that there may be concepts in action and theorems in action,
with their respective rules of action mostly related with those
basic structures built in the mathematics field and with those
strategies activated in daily life. The discrimination of the different
type of decisions taken by the student while solving a problematic
situation, carried out on the light of the Theory of conceptual
fields of Vergnaud, invites us to think over the differences in
the level of difficulty present in every magnitude as well as the
need of making a critical review of the equivalence concept.