Dialogue System for Fostering Way of Thinking Based on Physical Theory in Dynamics

Thinking based on physical theory is crucial for understanding physics. Dynamics is the initial physical theory that Japanese students learn in high school physics. In the theory of dynamics, the motion of objects is explained as a resultant of two forces of different directions. If students are not able to grasp the motion of objects by a resultant of two forces, they will not understand dynamics in physics at all. To extend such a way of thinking, we developed a dialogue system that encourages students to approach the motion of objects from the viewpoint of forces by asking them to explain the differences of the motion of the objects in a picture based on the similarity of their forces. Our system gives hints to guide them to reach correct answers. The results of our evaluation experiment suggest that the system is effective for observing the motion of objects by the two forces of vertical and horizontal directions.