Correlating students' views about experimental physics with their sense of project ownership

TL;DR

This study explores the relationship between students' attitudes towards experimental physics and their sense of ownership over projects, revealing a positive correlation that suggests attitudes may influence ownership.

Contribution

It is the first to quantitatively link students' experimental physics attitudes with their project ownership in multiweek physics labs.

Findings

Positive correlation between E-CLASS and POS scores

Students' views about experimentation are linked to project ownership

Results suggest potential causal relationship to explore in future studies

Abstract

Multiweek projects in physics labs can engage students in authentic experimentation practices, and it is important to understand student experiences during projects along multiple dimensions. To this end, we conducted an exploratory quantitative investigation to look for connections between students' pre-project views about experimental physics and their post-project sense of project ownership. We administered the Colorado Learning Attitudes About Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) and the Project Ownership Survey (POS) to 96 students enrolled in 6 lab courses at 5 universities. E-CLASS and POS scores were positively correlated, suggesting that students' views about experimentation may be linked to their ownership of projects. This finding motivates future studies that could explore whether these constructs are causally related.