Incorporating learning goals about modeling into an upper-division physics laboratory experiment

TL;DR

This paper discusses redesigning a physics optics lab to emphasize modeling, integrating conceptual and quantitative reasoning, and systematically addressing errors, thereby enhancing the educational value of the experiment.

Contribution

It presents a case study of incorporating modeling into a specific optics lab, demonstrating a general approach to improve lab activities through modeling emphasis.

Findings

Enhanced integration of modeling in lab activities

Systematic error analysis incorporated into the experiment

Improved conceptual and quantitative reasoning skills

Abstract

Implementing a laboratory activity involves a complex interplay among learning goals, available resources, feedback about the existing course, best practices for teaching, and an overall philosophy about teaching labs. Building on our previous work, which described a process of transforming an entire lab course, we now turn our attention to how an individual lab activity on the polarization of light was redesigned to include a renewed emphasis on one broad learning goal: modeling. By using this common optics lab as a concrete case study of a broadly applicable approach, we highlight many aspects of the activity development and show how modeling was used to integrate sophisticated conceptual and quantitative reasoning into the experimental process through the various aspects of modeling: constructing models, making predictions, interpreting data, comparing measurements with predictions, and refining models. One significant outcome is a natural way to integrate an analysis and discussion of systematic error into a lab activity.