Impact of an introductory lab course on students’ understanding of measurement uncertainty

Pollard, Benjamin; Hobbs, Robert; Stanley, Jacob T.; Dounas-Frazer, Dimitri R.; Lewandowski, H. J.

doi:10.1119/perc.2017.pr.073

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Therefor (sic) the value on the textbook should be better and more accurate." Similarly, few students in either cohort support their textbook judgment with Excludes uncertainty, which may be similar to research demonstrating the rarity of explicit point reasoning in other populations [7,8]. Table II.…”

Section: A Contextual Cues Affect Students' Judgmentssupporting

confidence: 69%

“…The Physics Measurement Questionnaire was specifically developed to probe these broad ways of reasoning about measurement [1][2][3]. Research with the questionnaire has demonstrated that many students tend toward presenting mixed reasoning-perhaps due to contextual cues-that includes elements from both point and set reasoning [1,2,[4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Context of authority may affect students’ evaluations of measurement

Smith¹,

Chodkowski²,

Holmes³

2020

2019 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Recent research in introductory physics labs suggests that most students judge the quality of a measurement based on a comparison with theory. To probe this dimension of students' judgments based on authority, we sought to evaluate whether students' responses about evaluations of measurement depended on contextual cues. We asked students which measurement of the acceleration due to gravity was 'better:' (1) one given with uncertainty and found by 'you and your friend' or 'you and your research group' or (2) a textbook value with no reported uncertainty but more significant figures. By deliberately structuring multiple possible forms of authority (e.g., precision, expertise, equipment, theory) we intended to draw out nuances in how students draw upon authority in evaluating the quality of measurements. Our results suggest that contextual cues may influence students' judgments about measurement and the authority that they draw upon more than lab instruction aimed at developing students' experimentation skills.

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Section: A Contextual Cues Affect Students' Judgmentssupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context of authority may affect students’ evaluations of measurement

Smith¹,

Chodkowski²,

Holmes³

2020

2019 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The statistically significant shift in Item 5 suggests that, distinct from the concepts themselves, students' views about measurement uncertainty were affected favorably by the transformation. Previous work has shown that students in the original course already show pre-post shifts towards such conceptial understanding [8,9]. Additional work is needed to see whether conceptual understanding also improves in the transformed course and, if so, how students' views about and their understanding of measurement uncertainty are coupled.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We identified a set of learning goals with input from STEM faculty at CU as an early step of the transformation process. In addition to goals regarding measurement uncertainty [8,9] and scientific communication, more than one learning goal focused explicitly on views about experimental physics. Prior to the course transformation, we collected data from the original course for several semesters along dimensions aligned with these learning goals, in order to establish a baseline of comparison for the transformation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming a large introductory lab course: impacts on views about experimental physics

Pollard¹,

Lewandowski²

2019

2018 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Laboratory courses are key components of most undergraduate physics programs. Lab courses often aim to achieve the following learning outcomes: developing students' experimental skills, engaging students in authentic scientific practices, reinforcing concepts, and inspiring students' interest and engagement in physics. Some of these outcomes can be measured by the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS), a research-based assessment that measures students' views about experimental physics. We used E-CLASS at the University of Colorado Boulder to measure learning outcomes during a course transformation process in which views about experimental physics were reflected in the learning goals. We collected over 600 student responses per semester from the large introductory laboratory course, both before and after implementing the course transformation. While we observed no statistically significant difference in overall post-instruction E-CLASS scores before and after the transformation, in the transformed course, student responses to three E-CLASS items that related to the goals of the transformation were more favorable than in the original course.

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“…Our past work used the PMQ and the paradigm model to measure learning in an introductory physics lab course at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) in Boulder, Colorado, US. Despite our context differing from that in which the PMQ was developed, we found that the PMQ nonetheless prompted responses from our students that could be analyzed using the point and set paradigms [16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Methodological development of a new coding scheme for an established assessment on measurement uncertainty in laboratory courses

Pollard¹,

Hobbs²,

Dounas-Frazer³

et al. 2020

2019 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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Student understanding around measurement uncertainty is an important learning outcome in physics lab courses across the US, including at the University of Coloroado Boulder (CU), where it is among the major learning outcomes for the large introductory stand-alone physics lab course. One research tool for studying student understanding around measurement uncertainty, which we use in this course, is the Physics Measurement Questionnaire (PMQ), an open-response assessment for measuring student understanding of measurement uncertainty. Interpreting and analyzing PMQ data involves coding students' written explanations to open-response questions. However, the preexisting scoring scheme for the PMQ does not fully capture the breadth and depth of reasoning contained in our students' responses. Therefore, we created a new coding scheme for the PMQ based on responses from our students. Here, we document our process to develop a new coding scheme for the PMQ, and describe the resulting codes. We also present examples of what can be learned from applying the new coding scheme at our institution.

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Impact of an introductory lab course on students’ understanding of measurement uncertainty

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

Context of authority may affect students’ evaluations of measurement

Context of authority may affect students’ evaluations of measurement

Transforming a large introductory lab course: impacts on views about experimental physics

Methodological development of a new coding scheme for an established assessment on measurement uncertainty in laboratory courses

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