  Scientists who study how the brain solves problems have recently verified
that, because of stringent limitations in working memory, where the brain
solves problems, students must apply facts and algorithms that have previously
been well memorized to reliably solve problems of any complexity. This is a
paradigm shift: A change in the fundamental understanding of how the brain
solves problems and how we can best guide students to learn to solve problems
in the physical sciences. One implication is that for students, knowledge of
concepts and big ideas is not sufficient to solve most problems assigned in
physics and chemistry courses for STEM majors. To develop an intuitive sense of
which fundamentals to recall when, first students must make the fundamental
relationships of a topic recallable with automaticity then apply those
fundamentals to solving problems in a variety of distinctive contexts. Based on
these findings, cognitive science has identified strategies that speed learning
and assist in retention of physics and chemistry. Experiments will be suggested
by which instructors can test science-informed methodologies.
