Letters Home as an Alternative to Lab Reports

Lane, W. Brian

doi:10.1119/1.4895351

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Lane [6] implemented an activity that incorporated the informal nature of letters to a formal discipline to teach students about communicating physics. Lane calls this activity Letters Home.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of letters and reports in an upper-division lab

Ramey

Dounas-Frazer

Thacker

2020

2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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In redesigning the Modern Physics Lab at Strive University, we focused its purpose on developing writing skills. In doing that, we implemented the pedagogical method Letters Home, which offers students the ability to practice communication in the form of letters to experts and non-experts. Students were additionally tasked with writing traditional lab reports. This case study investigates 6 students' completion of 6 writing assignments (letters and reports) to a real audience. We used the AAPT guidelines to develop a qualitative coding scheme with 8 categories, and we used a linguistic analysis software program called LIWC to evaluate the assignments' authenticity, clout, tone, and analytical thinking. Our results indicate 6 of the 8 coding categories appear in at least 50% of the data. Also, letters to experts and non-experts indicated similarities in analytical thinking. Authenticity scores were higher for letters to non-experts than experts. Overall, letters and reports are similar in terms of both the AAPT-inspired codes and linguistic dimensions probed by LIWC. The similarities between the letters and lab reports from our study may be due to our curriculum redesign.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative analysis of letters and reports in an upper-division lab

Ramey

Dounas-Frazer

Thacker

2020

2020 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings

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“…Characteristics: Weekly evaluation, done in teams of three students, consisting of experimental surveys and related analyzes 19,20,21 . Traditional writing reports often create a barrier for students' comprehension of physics concepts.…”

Section: Laboratory Reportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Traditional writing reports often create a barrier for students' comprehension of physics concepts. Some alternatives have been discussed, such as oral presentation, visual presentation (poster), and homework 20,21 . According to a previous study 20 , the use of alternative ways to report laboratory data allowed students to develop different skills (oral, visual, and written skills) in terms of reporting data.…”

Section: Laboratory Reportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some alternatives have been discussed, such as oral presentation, visual presentation (poster), and homework 20,21 . According to a previous study 20 , the use of alternative ways to report laboratory data allowed students to develop different skills (oral, visual, and written skills) in terms of reporting data. The necessity of developing such different skills is imperative for their professional lives 3 .…”

Section: Laboratory Reportsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ten Ways to Improve Learning Physics as Part of an Engineering Course

Cutri

Martin

Stem

et al.

2016 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Learning is a process. The assessment of learning is a powerful diagnosis that allows teachers to redirect their efforts towards assisting the weaknesses of the learning process as presented by students. This paper discusses 10 ways to improve learning Physics as part of an Engineering Course that adopt direct and indirect learning support actions. Each action is analyzed in connection to its own theoretical reference, the steps for implementing it, its challenges and needs, and students' and teachers' points of view. The actions discussed were applied to a Physics I course for freshman students at our Engineering School (a university with 1000 students-700 Day/300 Night ). These Learning Support Actions are initially divided into indirect learning actions (student activities to improve learning without any evaluation

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“…memos, narrative reports, letters) and delivery mechanisms (i.e. presentation, poster, written document) [6][7][8]. To build on this work, as well as provide specific examples in biomedical engineering, we sought to develop lab activities coupled with technical writing prompts to demonstrate the connection between experiment and technical communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%