Facilitating Learning of Projectile Problems with a Unified Approach

What projectile problems share in common is a given object accelerates downward with the acceleration due to gravity, which should be the key to solving this type of problems. However, students are often challenged by variations in given conditions (e.g., initial velocity or launch angle). They may try to follow different procedures for different given conditions while they neglect the essential common characteristics of projectile problems. This paper will provide a unified calculus-based approach which simplifies problem solving by shifting students’ attention from variations of surface features to the governing principle of projectile problems. First, we will justify the instructional benefit of this approach from the perspective of cognitive load theory. Then, we will demonstrate how this approach can solve projectile problems by using the same set of equations with the only different unknowns. Examples and assessment results will be provided to demonstrate the effectiveness as well as the challenges when teaching this approach.