Secret objectives: promoting inquiry and tackling preconceptions in teaching laboratories

TL;DR

This paper introduces 'secret objectives' in teaching labs, where students uncover hidden experimental goals to foster inquiry and address preconceptions, exemplified through a pendulum experiment.

Contribution

It proposes a novel method of embedding secret objectives in labs to enhance inquiry-based learning and connect problem-based and inquiry-style teaching.

Findings

Students engage more deeply with experiments.

Secret objectives promote critical thinking and exploration.

The method links problem-based learning with inquiry labs.

Abstract

In its most general form, a `secret objective' is any inconsistency between the experimental reality and the information provided to students prior to starting work on an experiment. Students are challenged to identify the secret objectives and then given freedom to explore and understand the experiment, thus encouraging and facilitating genuine inquiry elements in introductory laboratory courses. Damping of a simple pendulum is used as a concrete example to demonstrate how secret objectives can be included. We also discuss the implications of the secret objectives method and how this can provide a link between the concepts of problem based learning and inquiry style labs.