Students’ conception and multiple representations skill on rigid body collision

Collision problems play an important role in many daily life applications. The concept of collision usually describes in momentum and impulse. Concepts that are included in collision process can be represented in multiple representations, such as verbal, visual, graph, and mathematical. The aims of the research were to analyze students’ conception and their multiple representations skill in the collision. The method used in this research is descriptive survey method. The subjects of this research are university students from physics education program. Subjects consisted 34 students of 2nd semester who had learned Introduction Physics course. Data collected by using two-tier test and interview. Interview used to clarify and empower students answer. The results showed that 42.1% students have correct conception and 43.17% students have multiple representations skill. Almost all of students prefer to answer the question by using verbal representation and can’t write an equation or mathematical representation. Some students also do not understand the concept correctly, even though the material has taught before. It can happen because they answer the question based on their intuition. Intuition easily traps students to the wrong concepts. The results of this research can be used to encourage lecturers to utilize appropriate learning method and learning media that improve students’ conception in the collision.