Model-based reasoning in the physics laboratory: Framework and initial results

Abstract

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Upper Division Physics Courses.] We review and extend existing frameworks on modeling to develop a new framework that describes model-based reasoning in introductory and upper-division physics laboratories. Constructing and using models are core scientific practices that have gained significant attention within K-12 and higher education. Although modeling is a broadly applicable process, within physics education, it has been preferentially applied to the iterative development of broadly applicable principles (e.g., Newton's laws of motion in introductory mechanics). A significant feature of the new framework is that measurement tools (in addition to the physical system being studied) are subjected to the process of modeling. Think-aloud interviews were used to refine the framework and demonstrate its utility by documenting examples of model-based reasoning in the laboratory. When applied to the think-aloud interviews, the framework captures and differentiates students' model-based reasoning and helps identify areas of future research. The interviews showed how students productively applied similar facets of modeling to the physical system and measurement tools: construction, prediction, interpretation of data, identification of model limitations, and revision. Finally, we document students' challenges in explicitly articulating assumptions when constructing models of experimental systems and further challenges in model construction due to students' insufficient prior conceptual understanding. A modeling perspective reframes many of the seemingly arbitrary technical details of measurement tools and apparatus as an opportunity for authentic and engaging scientific sense making.

Intertwining evidence- and model-based reasoning in physics sensemaking: An example from electrostatics

“…Zwickl and Hu [39] systematize this iterative process in their Experimental Modeling Framework. They describe how students move fluidly between constructing and revising models of the physical system and the experimental or measurement system.…”

“…In physics, Halloun and Hestenes [35][36][37][38] were among the first to highlight the centrality of modeling for physics learning, and that pedagogical approach has since become increasingly popular in undergraduate physics courses and laboratories [13,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. Within K-12 science education, the Next Generation Science Standards contend that modeling should be a central activity of students in science classrooms, and so researchers have designed multiple instructional supports to support that activity [34,[47][48][49].…”

“…Within the discipline of physics, these models are often mechanistic, meaning that they describe the underlying process for how a cause brings about an effect [52]. Scientific models are grounded in physical or natural phenomena in the real world, built from prior knowledge, and change dynamically as our knowledge of those phenomena changes [39]. This dynamic nature of modeling is central to using it to support learning; a crucial part of the modeling process involves identifying the different components of modelsthe key features, relationships, or objects involved in the mechanistic model that produce the phenomenon of study [50].…”

Student ownership of projects in an upper-division optics laboratory course: A multiple case study of successful experiences

“…In a course for preservice teachers, Atkins and Salter [15] described students' processes for constructing definitions of "blurriness." Other work has focused on characterizing students' conceptual difficulties [16] and problem-solving strategies [17] in theory-based geometrical optics contexts, as well as their use of model-based reasoning when completing an experimental optics task [18]. In the context of upper-division optics labs, many sequences of activities have been described in detail.…”

Correlation between Students' Understanding on Derivative and Integral Calculus with Thermodynamics

“…One of these methods is the use of modeling. A model representation of a certain phenomenon could be presented through verbal, computational, mathematical, diagrams, or graphs [2]. Mathematical representations, in particular, are very familiar in physics because it could be derived in order to describe other phenomena and visualize relation between involved variables [5].…”