PERC 2015 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Developing quantitative critical thinking in the introductory physics laboratory |
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| Abstract: | While the goals for instructional labs have been highly debated, inquiry- and skills-driven labs can lead to significant gains in students' scientific and experimentation abilities. A simple scaffold for introductory labs uses iterative cycles of comparisons to develop students' epistemologies, experimentation behaviours, and critical thinking abilities. By focusing the iterations on improving measurements, students explore the limits of physical models in the real world and engage in the evaluation and refinement of these models. In a controlled research study, students adopted these behaviours and continued to use them even after instruction to do so had been removed. |
| Abstract Type: | Plenary |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Natasha Holmes Stanford University |
