Home Lab Project : Cheap, Simple Labs Deliver Complex Lessons

Author / Creator

AAPT SM20 (2020)

Conferences

AAPT SM20 (2020)

Available as

Online

Summary

The rapid shift to online instruction presented daunting problems, but also an interesting question: What do we REALLY want students to learn from an introductory physics lab? At Cuyamaca College, ...

The rapid shift to online instruction presented daunting problems, but also an interesting question: What do we REALLY want students to learn from an introductory physics lab? At Cuyamaca College, we decided that we cared that students (1) connected abstract course material to something concrete, (2) understood how to collect, analyze, and present data to test a scientific idea, and (3) could communicate their own scientific understanding. To do this we designed two simulation based labs and a project. The lab project, a multi-part assignment spread over the remainder of the semester, asked students to propose, design, run, and present a lab themselves using tools they had at home or could get safely and cheaply. By providing a few examples and a lot of support, we received some truly remarkable projects ranging from DC motors and electromagnets to pendulums and egg drops. Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

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