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Many students experience their first practical application of statistics and error analysis in their introductory physics laboratory courses. The activities they conduct in their lab courses teach definitions, concepts, and skills in statistics and error analysis that they will use for the rest of their academic and postgraduate career. We analyze the use of statistical methods in college-level introductory physics laboratory courses by reviewing a sample of student lab manuals collected from two-year community colleges and four-year universities. Approaches to introducing statistical concepts and procedures are examined for consistency, with particular reference to national and international statistical guidelines such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the International Organization for Standardisation (ISO). Our analysis reveals a severe inconsistency in the treatment of statistics and error among the sampled lab manuals for courses aimed at science and engineering students.

AAPT SM 20

Treatment of statistics and error in introductory physics lab manuals

stats

manuals

laboratory

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

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AAPT SM 21

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The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. 

Integrating computation into the classroom has been an uncharted journey; from learning to code at a week long seminar to encouraging students in the classroom to interpret code and solve problems. Gathering information gained through practice and discussion, I introduced my students to vpython using trinket. Programming activities ranged from moving and creating shapes to using the program to confirm physics homework challenges. The results have been varied as I learn to understand how quickly (or not) students pick up the logic flow of programming. Exposing students to the world of coding is valuable in that no matter where and what they end up doing in their lives, they will be exposed to some need for programming. As an experienced teacher, but not an experienced programmer, I am a great model for “anyone can do this”.

The Experience of Integrating Computation into the Physics Classroom

Physics laboratory classes offer great potential for learning, often in ways that are distinct and complementary to theory-focused courses. However, there are relatively few research-based assessments that are suitable for use in an upper-division physics laboratory course. Our group has created a new set of research-based assessments for measuring a central aspect of laboratory learning: modeling. The assessments, known as the Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments (MAPLE), are computer-based surveys with two parts. The first part is a "choose your own adventure," while the second part consists of standard coupled multiple response items. There are three surveys in MAPLE, each contextualizing modeling within different experimental apparatus: a pendulum, an op-amp circuit, and a laser incident on two polarizers. I present the development process and theoretical foundations of MAPLE, describe the assessments themselves, and discuss how they can be used to measure and improve laboratory learning.

MAPLE, the Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments

The first two semesters of introductory calculus-based physics at George Mason University are taught in two parallel formats: a flipped section (taught in a SCALE-UP-style active learning classroom, replacing lecture and recitation) and a traditional lecture section. To assess the influence on these formats on student performance and retention, we analyzed a data set of over 1000 students who took the traditional and/or flipped introductory courses in 2013-15, and tracked them longitudinally through their subsequent physics and engineering courses. Initial results suggest that taking flipped Physics I is associated with higher grades in later courses, and taking flipped Physics II is associated with lower grades. However, the full picture is more complicated. A greater fraction of the students who take flipped Physics II go on to take advanced courses, which suggests that flipped Physics II is associated with higher overall retention in physics and related fields.

Longitudinal impact of flipped and traditional introductory physics

Recent work by Kanim and Cid [2] suggests that the data used in PER is not representative of students enrolled in physics courses at the national level. Using university-level demographics, Kanim and Cid showed that PER studies oversample from white, wealthy, mathematically-prepared populations of students. What we do not yet know is whether these university-level demographics are representative of introductory physics courses, which are a primary site of research in PER. In this talk, we present data from nine US institutions, comparing the composition of introductory physics classes to aggregate university demographics across a number of social markers, including gender, race/ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Our aim is to make progress in characterizing the demographics of introductory physics courses, which is imperative to deepening our understanding of how social disparity is manifested in physics classrooms and the institutions that host them. We discuss limitations of our approach, including problematizing our use of statistics to make sense of who is enrolling in introductory physics.

Toward Characterizing the Demographics of Introductory Physics Courses

Instructors who teach introductory physics courses may be working with the assumption that their students are fluent with middle-school- and high-school-level mathematics. As reasonable as this assumption may seem, our data, which includes over 5,000 hand-written mathematics diagnostics administered at three large state universities, has consistently shown that students struggle with basic mathematics (graphing, trigonometry, geometry, and algebra) to a significant degree. From our large and campus-diverse samples, we have found remarkable consistency between populations and have noticed interesting trends. For example, we have found specific items that seem to predict overall diagnostic performance with impressive accuracy, independent of campus and course. Here, we focus on an in-depth analysis of these predictive items while elaborating on our interpretation of the results. We will also briefly discuss our plans and ideas to address this deep-rooted issue.

Measuring and predicting the mathematical preparedness of introductory physics students

Micropattern gas detectors (MPGDs), of which gas electron multipliers (GEMs) are a class, are a recent technology meeting today’s higher requirements of both spatial and temporal resolution in high energy physics, as well as medical applications. GEM chamber performance depends on many different parameters such as gain, gas tightness, high voltage (HV) response and noise. The gain is a key parameter, a measure of the chamber’s ability to amplify an electronic signal from ionizing particles passing through the chamber’s gas volume. Students in the RWTH Aachen University advanced physics lab studied the effect on gain while varying gas mixture and HV, as well the incoming particle rate. This experiment allows the instructor to cater to diverse set of applications and student interest. Student feedback will be presented.

Micropattern Gas Detectors for Advanced Physics Laboratories

As a high school teacher and E-mentor I have found a wealth of information within the AAPT organization to not only assist with my own instruction but to provide support for new teachers in the field. Everything from adopt a physicist to digi-kits is at my finger tips. As a physics teaching association I believe many members do not realize the breadth of resources available and much of the resources are underused.

Benefits of AAPT to High School Physics Teachers

I will present an overview of some of the cloud-based tools and software to facilitate integration of computation into a physics curriculum. These tools allow students to do computational work without having to install and configure software on their personal computers. The ability to share their code in real-time with classmates allows for collaborative learning, and sharing with the instructor provides an avenue for fast feedback. Examples of assignments using cloud-based tools will be presented.

Cloud-based Tools and Software for Integrating Computation into a Physics Curriculum

Proficiency in units/dimensional analysis is a useful skill in the sciences and engineering, and STEM instructors often presume competence from their students in this area. However, unit analysis techniques and unit systems are not always formally taught, and even with explicit emphasis during instruction, many students lack the repeated exposure necessary to master them. To assess student understanding of units and unit systems, we administered a brief, itemized survey to N=53 calculus-based introductory university physics students. The survey was intended to uncover possible misconceptions and identify previously unknown obstacles to student success within this topic. Our results suggest that as many as half of surveyed participants may not recognize the adaptability of symbolic physical equations to different unit systems. Furthermore, a similar proportion failed to eliminate non-viable answer choices involving analytic functions with units inside their arguments. Consequently, we believe units/dimensional analysis is a topic ripe for further investigation.

Excerpts from an exploratory survey of units/dimensional analysis in introductory physics

Model Rocket engines have provided students at St. Catherine University the opportunity to review concepts about impulse, energy and kinematics. In what is now fondly called ‘the rocket lab’ students build a rocket at the end of one lab session and then proceed to launch and calculate the altitude the model reaches theoretically using impulse and conservation of energy. Students are then able to experimentally measure the altitude using trigonometry and from an altitude box attached to the nose cone. The lab allows for discussion related to sizing i.e. ½ A vs A in terms of the impulse delivered by the engine. We are also able to talk about how the changing mass generates the thrust needed to propel the rocket skywards. Our students have found this lab to be an effective way to learn these topics in their courses.

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Treatment of statistics and error in introductory physics lab manuals

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