Development of a Suite of Assessment Tools for Measuring Students' Experimental Modeling Skills

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

Laboratory courses offer significant opportunities for engagement in the practices and core ideas of science. Laboratory course environments typically have extensive lab equipment, flexible classroom arrangements, low student/teacher ratios, and opportunities for collaborative work. All of these characteristics help promote students' engagement in a range of scientific practices (e.g., asking questions, designing and carrying out experiments, analyzing data, developing and refining models, and presenting results to peers). Despite the abundant opportunities and resources in many laboratory courses, concerns are frequently raised about how effective such courses are at fulfilling their potential. Many recent efforts have attempted to improve the learning experience for students in lab courses. This important project will support these efforts across the country by developing easy-to-implement assessments for measuring students' ability in modeling of experiments, one of the core scientific practices. The assessment instruments will give instructors and education researchers a way to measure the impact of instruction, and thus allow for evaluation and refinements of different educational pedagogies in lab courses. This project will develop, validate, and support an easily implementable and interpretable assessment for experimental modeling skills in upper-division lab courses. The project will follow the theoretical model of Classical Test Theory to guide the development of two coupled multiple-response assessment instruments. These instruments will measure students' ability to construct, test, and refine models of experimental systems and measurement apparatus at the upper-division level. The two assessments will focus on two common content areas in upper-division physics labs, analog electronics and optics. The products of the project will not only give instructors actionable evidence to help them refine their courses, but also give researchers insight into how students develop the modeling skills required for any experimental investigation in physics.