  The Energy and Momentum Conceptual Survey (EMCS) is a multiple-choice survey
that contains conceptual problems involving a variety of energy and momentum
concepts covered in a typical introductory physics course for science and
engineering majors. Prior studies suggest that many concepts on the survey are
challenging for introductory physics students and the average student scores
after traditional lecture-based instruction are low. The research presented
here investigates the progression in student understanding of the EMCS concepts
including their evolution from the beginning to the end of their courses in
introductory and advanced level undergraduate physics after traditional
lecture-based instruction. We find that on all EMCS questions on which less
than 50% of the introductory physics students answered a question correctly
after traditional instruction, less than two-thirds of the upper-level
undergraduate students provided the correct response after traditional
lecture-based instruction. We discuss the EMCS questions that remain
challenging and the common alternate conceptions among upper-level students.
The findings presented here are consistent with prior research showing that
traditional instruction in upper-level courses, which typically focuses
primarily on quantitative problem solving and often incentivizes use of
algorithmic approaches, is not effective for helping many students develop a
functional understanding of underlying concepts.
