Inquiry-based activities and their effects on students’ ability to explain related problem scenarios

Abstract

This research investigated the impact of several structured inquiry experiments in mechanics and heat on introductory college physics students' ability to solve or make sense of problem scenarios. The students performed experiments where they were guided in discovering for themselves the physical concepts or principles rather than having them verify concepts/principles as in traditional lab classes. At the end of each laboratory activity, students were asked to answer problem scenarios with solutions or answers requiring a direct application of the physical concepts investigated in the laboratory experiment. Our preliminary results indicate that students are able to use the concepts learned from the laboratory activity in explaining problem scenarios only in some topics (e.g. thermal expansion) but not in other topics (e.g. momentum conservation).