Innovative methods for laboratory courses in physics degree programs: the Slovenian experience Gorazd Planinšič Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia gorazd.planinsic@fmf.uni-lj.si L esperienza del PLS: guardando oltre, Roma, 11-12.5.2015
This work has been developed in collaboration with: Eugenia Etkina, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA and PE students from University of Ljubljana Nejc Davidović Sergej Faletič Klemen Kelih Matej Gabrijelčič
Labs as a part of physics education in Primary Scholl (age 6-15) High School (age 15-19) Traditional teaching approaches Cookbook labs (individual/group work) Slovenia Physics is compulsory subject for at least 5 years (2 in PS + 3 in HS) Relatively good achievements in TIMSS, PISA (upper third) University, Physics majors, including future high-school physics teachers! Traditional teaching approaches (except few courses) Cookbook labs (compulsory, individual work) Project labs (optional, team work on open ended problems) A student can finish university degree without ever working in a group on an open ended problem!
Recommendations EU: Tuning Educational Structures in Europe (2003), guide for planning the Bologna proces and the platform for establishing communication between employers and universities among the first five generic competences ranked by physics graduates and employers are Problem solving, Capacity to apply knowledge in practice Teamwork
Recommendations USA: Shaping the future (1996), Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology, NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources Review of Undergraduate Education Document requests more scientific investigation, pedagogy that helps students develop skills such as teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and life long learning.
Project Lab basic data Since 1999: optional course for 1st year & 2nd year students Enrolment: 25-35 students/semester (about 1/3 of active cohort) Load: 1/10 of total # of semester credits Grading: pass/fail Staff: 0.3 Prof + 1 TA G Planinšič (2007), Eur. J. Phys.
Project lab - Course description (until fall 2014) Students work in groups of 4-5. We leave students to form groups by themselves. Students work through open ended experimental problems with minimal scaffolding. TAs only help them to think like scientists. Every group gets a new project task (> 150 projects so far). Students spend 3 x 3h/week in the lab and about 6 hours outside lab to complete the web-report. Students are given general structure of the web-report and list of typical mistakes. Course leaders provide feedback on students web-reports by writing specific comments (can be a time consuming work). At the end of the semester all groups present their work in a 5 min presentations.
Project tasks types Design an experiment(s) to investigate a phenomenon /determine a quantitiy... [70%] Design an apparatus or procedure that meets the following requirements... [30%]
Example of project tasks Buzzing toothbrush Determine the vibrating frequency of electric toothbrush. Design and implement at least three methods and compare the results of your measurements.
Project instructions Title, date, TA Task description Technical guidelines Group organization Guidelines for preparing web-report
Student responses (free responses to on-line questionnaire) I really liked the project tasks. They were all very interesting because they were related with the knowledge that we will need in our life or during studying physics. I liked the freedom in achieving the goals of the project. I liked team work and no pressure for grading
Course evaluations 2011/12 Acquired competencies: communicate results, using literature, work in a team Score AVG Score AVG STDV 1.Project Lab 2.52 0.85 21 2.Physics Practicum 2 2.45 0.89 73 3.Physics Practicum 1 2.44 0.90 72 4.Computational tools in Physics 2.32 1.24 38 Acquired knowledge, ability for understanding and solving problems STDV 1.Computational tools in Physics 2.47 1.19 38 2.Physics Practicum 1 2.46 0.89 74 3.Project lab 2.43 0.90 21 4.Introductory Physics 1 2.38 1.14 74 N N Scores on a scale from -3 to 3 Out of 17 courses
Course evaluations 2012/13 Acquired competencies: communicate results, using literature, work in a team Score AVG Score AVG STDV 1.Project lab 2.47 0.88 19 2.Computational tools in physics 2.23 1.25 39 3.Physics Practicum 1 2.18 1.04 76 4.Physsics Practicum 2 2.09 1.00 77 Acquired knowledge, ability for understanding and solving problems STDV 1.Computational tools in physics 2.40 1.20 40 2.Project lab 2.26 1.16 19 3.Physics practicum 1 2.23 1.02 78 4.Introd Physics 2 2.17 1.04 72 N N Scores on a scale from -3 to 3 Out of 17 courses
Timeline of course evolution 15 years of experiences Research based design/ course renovation 1st semester 2nd semester GIREP Seminar, Udine 2003 EJP (2007) special issue on labs We are HERE
Can we make it (even) better? Guiding questions How to engage students in thinking like physicists in more systematic and scaffolded ways? How to help students reflect on their own learning and selfevalute their work? What can we learn from students reflections? How to simplify the job of the instructor?
Changes in project tasks types OBSERVATIONAL EXPERIMENTS TESTING EXPERIMENTS APPLICATION EXPERIMENTS OBSERVATIONAL EXPERIMENT Hovercraft Simple hovercraft can be made of used CD, plastic stopper with a hole and the balloon (see figure). Investigate how relevant parameters affect hovercraft motion and time spent levitating. Etkina et al., The role of experiments in physics instruction (2002)
TESTING EXPERIMENT Disappearing water Romano in Ana observe how water slowly disappears from an open container. They notice that drying is faster in the presence of wind. Each of them proposes an explanation: Romano: fresh air from wind sucks water vapor by binding water molecules to air molecules. Ana: wind makes more space for water molecules so they can leave the liquid. Design experiments that will allow you to test the explanations and choose the one that explains the observed phenomenon best.
APPLICATION EXPERIMENT Energy stored in a battery Design two independent methods to determine energy stored in an AA battery and compare the results.
Changes in Project instructions Title, date, TA Task description General about group work About rubrics 3 rubrics About the role of TAs Technical guidelines
1 2 3 RUBRIC A: RUBRIC B: RUBRIC C: RUBRIC D: RUBRIC E: Ability to design & conduct an observational experiment * Ability to design & conduct an experiment to test a proposed explanation * Ability to design & conduct an application experiment * Ability to collect and analyze experimental data* Ability to communicate scientific ideas using a webpage * Etkina et al. (2006)
E5: Is able to use the web technology adequately E6: Is aware of copyright laws
Timeline (spring 2015) week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Groups receive project tasks including 3 rubrics Experimental work (3h/week in the workshop) 2 weeks for producing web-report (V1) Time for revisions* + reflection (rubric No 4) Presentation of projects (5min/gr) * Groups need to revise the webreports until they are scored as adequate on all items!
Students personal reflections Students have to submit personal reflections after sending the revision of the first version of the webreport. Students get additional (fourth) rubric that help them write personal reflections. Students need to revise the reflections until they are scored as adequate.
First version of the Rubric for reflection
What do students think about their learning? (preliminary results, normalized responses ) Webpage design Physics concepts Work in a group Science practices
Science practices general statement I learned a lot about how to think about all the parameters such as control variables and experimental uncertainties and even more about how to think about them in general Science practices specific statement Here we learned that you can t prove a hypotheses, you can only reject them. Group work general statement I learned how important is that a group works as one, is organized and makes group decisions. Group work specific statement In these sessions I learned how to state my idea as effective as possible. It is important that idea is understandable for all the group members, so you often have to try to put abstract ideas into a coherent unit that makes sense, so that your group members understand. => Revise the rubric to stimulate specific statements
Revised version of the rubric for reflection
Student responses on rubrics I think that the concept of this course is very good, also the rubrics were carefully made and they helped us in our work. I wish more courses would follow the practice of this course, at least where possible.
Project lab spring 2015 Course description Students work in groups of 4-5. Students propose groups but we adjust final groups to achieve productive gender balance. Students work through open ended experimental problems with scaffolding provided by the rubrics. Every group gets a new project task. Types of projects reflect roles of experiments in science practice (observational, testing, application). Students spend 3 x 3h/week in the lab and about 6 hours outside lab to complete the web-report. Students are given project-specific rubrics that help them through the project and to prepare the web-report. Course leaders provide feedback on students web-reports by refering to the rubrics items. After the web-report is being accepted every student writes a personal reflection. At the end of the semester all groups present their work in a 5 min review presentation.
Connecting Project Lab with teacher preparation Graduate students in Physics Eeducation program Work as TAs in Project Lab course Propose new Project lab tasks, Help to evaluate students reports using rubrics, Make interviews, video recordings, transcriptions Conduct research
Summary Project labs give first year students opportunities for using creatively their knowledge and skills, while developing key science competences. Project labs respond to the needs of the future and to the educational standards. They are also highly appreciated by students. In spite of this they are still a rare part of the undergraduate programs. We found Rutgers Scientific ability rubrics to be very helpful for students (seflevaluation, reflection) for instructors (reducing workload) and very useful for research-based approach to educational reforms.
Grazie!