PERC 2019 Abstract Detail Page
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| Abstract Title: | Students’ beliefs about the nature of experimental physics: Part one |
|---|---|
| Abstract: | In this poster, we report on the first part of a two-part investigation of students' beliefs about the nature of experimental physics. Participants in our study were undergraduate physics students enrolled in a project-based optics laboratory course at a Master's-granting university in the Midwestern United States. During surveys and interviews, we asked participants to specify whether particular classroom practices were features of experimental physics research, and to explain their reasoning. In the first part of our project, we describe the rationale and criteria that participants used when ranking some practices, but not others, as features of experimental physics. We look for patterns in reasoning within and across students. For example, preliminary analysis suggests that some participants used their own project experiences as a proxy for experimentation more generally; these participants reasoned that, if they engaged in a practice during their project, it was a feature of experimental physics. |
| Abstract Type: | Contributed Poster Presentation |
| Session Time: | Poster Session I |
| Poster Number: | A58 |
Author/Organizer Information | |
| Primary Contact: |
Kimme S. Johnson Western Washington University 516 High St Bellingham, WA 98225 |
| Co-Author(s) and Co-Presenter(s) |
Soojin E. Park, Western Washington University; H. J. Lewandowski, University of Colorado Boulder; Dimitri R. Dounas-Frazer, Western Washington University |
