Student reasoning about measurement uncertainty in an introductory lab course

Abstract

Proficiency with calculating, reporting, and understanding measurement uncertainty is a nationally recognized learning outcome for undergraduate physics lab courses. The Physics Measurement Questionnaire (PMQ) is a research-based assessment tool that measures such understanding. The PMQ was designed to characterize student reasoning into point or set paradigms, where the set paradigm is more aligned with expert reasoning. We analyzed over 500 student open-ended responses collected at the beginning and the end of a traditional introductory lab course at the University of Colorado Boulder. We discuss changes in students' understanding over a semester by analyzing pre-post shifts in student responses regarding data collection, data analysis, and data comparison.

Methodological development of a new coding scheme for an established assessment on measurement uncertainty in laboratory courses

“…1. While most students at CU respond to this probe with reasoning aligned with the set paradigm [16], there are nonetheless salient differences between their responses. For example, one student reported the average because it "takes into consideration of all the points."…”

“…The UR probe in particular illustrates the utility of our coding scheme in the CU context. This probe is notable because our students provide pre responses that are predominately in the set paradigm, leaving little room for shifts towards set reasoning in the post responses [16]. Such paradigm-level results offer little insight into the student reasoning that the UR probe aims to provide.…”

“…Our past work used the PMQ and the paradigm model to measure learning in an introductory physics lab course at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) in Boulder, Colorado, US. Despite our context differing from that in which the PMQ was developed, we found that the PMQ nonetheless prompted responses from our students that could be analyzed using the point and set paradigms [16,17].…”

“…The PMQ was developed over a decade ago in the context of a research project concerning lab curriculum reform at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, ZA [8]. Starting from earlier work involving pupils aged [11][12][13][14][15][16] in York, UK [12], researchers in Cape Town found that the instruments developed in York were not suitable for their first-year university students, and thus developed a new set of survey questions for their own national and institutional context [8]. These questions, or probes, compose the PMQ survey itself.…”

Transforming a large introductory lab course: impacts on views about experimental physics

“…We identified a set of learning goals with input from STEM faculty at CU as an early step of the transformation process. In addition to goals regarding measurement uncertainty [8,9] and scientific communication, more than one learning goal focused explicitly on views about experimental physics. Prior to the course transformation, we collected data from the original course for several semesters along dimensions aligned with these learning goals, in order to establish a baseline of comparison for the transformation.…”