Inquiry-Based Physics Lab for Under-Prepared South Carolina State University Students

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Many students begin their undergraduate careers with rather weak backgrounds in science. Consequently, many of them fail to grasp the conceptual basis of physics, the rationale for the successive steps in a traditional physics laboratory experiment, and the reasoning behind standard data analyses. Both of these shortcomings are being rectified by replacing the conventional physics laboratory with a guided-inquiry laboratory. The inquiry-based laboratory is being patterned after a successful microcomputer-based laboratory. Researchers have demonstrated that using the computer's fast data-acquisition capabilities to instantly confront the students' intuition results in a conceptual understanding vastly superior to that developed in traditional laboratories. This result is because emphasis in the laboratory is shifted from data collection to data interpretation and scientific thinking. Students are being given the hour-long Force Concept Inventory test at the beginning and end of the semester to evaluate the effectiveness of the inquiry-based laboratory in imparting physical concepts. The test is a standard measure of whether or not a student has developed a Newtonian world view. Instituting an inquiry-based physics laboratory serves as a model for other colleges and universities faced with the problem of teaching physics to insufficiently prepared students. Experiences with the laboratory can be disseminated by articles in appropriate journals, and by conference presentations. *