Developing model-making and model-breaking skills using direct measurement video-based activities

Abstract

This study focuses on student development of two important laboratory skills in the context of introductory college-level physics. The first skill, which we call model making, is the ability to analyze a phenomenon in a way that produces a quantitative multimodal model. The second skill, which we call model breaking, is the ability to critically evaluate if the behavior of a system is consistent with a given model. This study involved 116 introductory physics students in four different sections, each taught by a different instructor. All of the students within a given class section participated in the same instruction (including labs) with the exception of five activities performed throughout the semester. For those five activities, each class section was split into two groups; one group was scaffolded to focus on model-making skills and the other was scaffolded to focus on model-breaking skills. Both conditions involved direct measurement videos. In some cases, students could vary important experimental parameters within the video like mass, frequency, and tension. Data collected at the end of the semester indicate that students in the model-making treatment group significantly outperformed the other group on the model-making skill despite the fact that both groups shared a common physical lab experience. Likewise, the model-breaking treatment group significantly outperformed the other group on the model-breaking skill. This is important because it shows that direct measurement video-based instruction can help students acquire science-process skills, which are critical for scientists, and which are a key part of current science education approaches such as the Next Generation Science Standards and the Advanced Placement Physics 1 course.

How expectations of confirmation influence students’ experimentation decisions in introductory labs

“…Conflicts between students' expectations and their results set up productive discussions about the data and analysis methods. These examples demonstrate that lab activities that appear confirmatory, but actually yield surprising or conflicting results, may be productive for students' engagement and learning [56][57][58]. Our data, however, support the claim that lab activities developed with the intent for a student to obtain a particular outcome, without careful attention to evaluating a scientific process or model, may lead to problematic biases, behaviors, and beliefs.…”

Computational Thinking in Introductory Physics

“…There is some debate now regarding the value of physics labs [13,14] and activities of this kind may provide a useful new direction for research, especially now that an increasing number of smartphones and tablets can record slow motion video at 240 frames per second. This is the same frame rate that many of excellent direct measurement videos from Peter Bohacek 1 were recorded [24].…”

Characterizing lab instructors’ self-reported learning goals to inform development of an experimental modeling skills assessment

“…The Modeling Framework has previously been used to create model-centered activities in an introductory course [15] and in upper-division labs [16][17][18][19]. It has also been used to characterize students' modeling approaches in experimental optics [27,28] and electronics [56,57] contexts, and to examine students' engagement in modeling during scaffolded model-oriented lab activities in an electronics lab course [20].…”

“…In the late 1980s, Hestenes and Halloun [6,7] laid the groundwork for a model-centered curriculum that is now known as Modeling Instruction [8,9], a widely used pedagogy for introductory physics at the high school and university levels. Since then, several other introductory courses and curricula have been developed to engage students in the iterative process of creating and revising models [10][11][12][13][14][15]. At the upperdivision level, the Advanced Lab [16][17][18] and Electronics Lab [19,20] at the University of Colorado Boulder have both been transformed to emphasize model-based reasoning.…”