This diploma thesis presents an analysis of multiple choice questions in the elementary school physics competition.. It presents the history and popularisation of the competition. In detail I examined three school years and three rather extensive topics: buoyancy, force and motion. I also compared the successfulness of problem solving and analysed the effectiveness of responses. Based on statistical data I concluded that there was no significant progress in problem solving through the years. I found out that competitors are solving motion related problems fundamentally better than those related to buoyancy and forces which I attribute to different levels of difficulty. I created a graph for every exercise from the elementary school physics competitions from years 2004, 2007 and 2008 from which it is evident if possible solutions are given in a manner to differentiate between successful and less successful competitors. With some exercises the difference was clearly seen, but with others it was not, which can indicate that the majority of competitors were solving that specific problem with speculation. Considering the effectiveness of distractors, the test problems from the 2004 competition were good, while the ones from 2008 were mostly easily solvable.
|