Session N07: Research about Physics Laboratory Teaching

Engaging over 1400 students in authentic research through an introductory course-based undergraduate research experience

Participation in undergraduate research experiences (UREs) has been identified as an important way of increasing undergraduate retention, interest, and identity within the sciences. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been shown to have similar outcomes to UREs, but can reach a larger number of students at one time and are accessible to any student simply through enrollment in a course. One key component of a CURE is that students must participate in authentic scientific discovery in which they answer a question where the answer is initially unknown to both students and the scientific community. Here, we present student experiences with authentic research in the first large-enrollment, introductory physics CURE conducted remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outcomes of this CURE include a new result suggesting the mechanism for why the sun's corona is so much hotter than the surface of the sun, which is a longstanding puzzle in solar physics. Additionally, we find that the course helped students gain research skills and programing confidence, engage in productive and enjoyable teamwork experiences, and feel motivated and interested in experimental physics research.   

Assessing Students in a Reformed Laboratory Course at Michigan State University

As a relatively new field of study, physics education research (PER) has made many strides toward understanding the teaching and learning of physics. Over the course of approximately 40 years, much of the research has been focused on topics such as conceptual understanding, problem solving, curriculum and instruction, and student attitudes and beliefs about learning and teaching. However, with the recent development of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Recommendation for the Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Curriculum, a significant portion of the PER community has turned much of their attention toward the undergraduate laboratory environment. The Michigan State University Physics and Astronomy Department has recently transformed its algebra-based, introductory physics laboratory curriculum. This newly transformed course, Design, Analysis, Tools, and Apprenticeship (DATA) Lab, emphasizes the development of experimental skills and laboratory practices and provides students with an authentic physics laboratory experience. Students in DATA Lab engage in the exploration of physical systems to increase their understanding of data analysis, model development, measurement uncertainty, and scientific communication. In the presentation, I will discuss the various types of assessments we've been using to analyze student outcomes within this course including student understanding of measurement uncertainty and experimental design as well as student attitudes toward experimental physics.   

Educational Assessment and Physics Lab Courses: What to Consider when Designing Assessment

Recent research on physics instructional labs for undergraduate education has highlighted many factors that increase the quailty of teaching and learning e.g. the focus on learning outcomes related to experimental skills and the inclusion of open-ended elements in the lab tasks. But as lab instruction is moving forward, what is the situation with educational assessment of lab work - is it moving forward as well? Generally, the research on educational assessment has highlighted to need to conduct also formative assessment i.e. assessment for learning, alongside with the summative assessment, i.e. assesment of learning. Research has also focused on the possible benefits of self and peer assessment alongside with the teacher assessment. But have these suggestions made it through to physics instructional labs?

In my presentation, I will present the results of a literature review focusing on educational assessment of labs. The review focused on studies published between the years 2000 and 2022. As the number of studies concentrating on physics instructional labs was quite small, we chose to include also chemistry education studies to the review. Through a screening process, 34 journal articles were chosen for the review.

The results show that 50 % of the studies concentrated at least partly on the assessment of experimental skills, 33 % on content knowledge and 24 % on so-called "metaskills" such as team work. Almost all of the studies concentrated on at least partly on summative assessment and 59 % of studies focusing on at least partly on formative assessment. The most common form of formative assessment was feedback from the teachers or TAs that was given to a draft or the final product, e.g. lab report. 94 % of the reviewed studies focused on asessment conducted by a teacher or a TA with 23 % and 21 % focusing on self and peer assessment, respectively.

All in all, research on educational assessment and labs emphasizes assessment that is summative, teacher-led, and focuses on experimental skills and content knowledge. The scenery could be described with the word “traditional”. On the other hand, many of the studies presented new and experimental approaches to assessment.

Finally we propose a model for desigining educational assessment of labs where the different objectives, purposes and agents of assessment are brought together.