Developing and Supporting Student Projects in Upper-Division Physics Lab Courses

培养学生的实验物理技能是本科物理教育的重要学习成果。实验课程，尤其是那些包含数周期末项目的课程，是学习这些技能的重要途径。然而，由于缺乏对实验教育的广泛研究，很难知道哪些实践对实现实验课特有的学习成果最有效。本项目将为实验课的最终项目提供一套以研究为基础、经过实地测试的指导方针和示例。这些指导方针和例子将支持教师设计有可能提高学生实验物理技能的项目。基于研究的指导方针的可用性将是朝着降低设计有效实验室项目的障碍迈出的重要一步，这将帮助学生为科学和工程的职业生涯做好准备。该项目的目标是开发一个基于研究的最佳实践纲要，用于高年级物理实验课程中使用基于设计的实施研究方法的多周项目。最佳实践将为项目的三个主要方面提供信息：(1)项目的目标和框架；（二）项目结构指南，包括实地测试的真实范例；(3)选择合适的评估和解释评估结果的指导方针。特别是，这些最佳实践将被开发，以促进与学生基于模型的推理技能、故障排除技能、类似专家的文档实践以及对其项目的所有权感相关的学习目标。最佳实践将经历研究、开发和实现的三个迭代。在所有三个迭代中，项目团队将调查学生学习目标最有可能被满足的条件。多种类型的数据将为最佳实践的发展和完善提供信息，包括学生调查、课堂观察以及对学生和教师的采访。最终，这个项目将促进对课堂实践的理解，有效地发展学生的实验物理技能。

Developing students' experimental physics skills is an important learning outcome for undergraduate physics education. Lab courses, especially those that include multi-week final projects, are a crucial avenue for learning such skills. However, due to a lack of extensive research on lab education, it is difficult to know which practices are most effective for achieving learning outcomes that are unique to lab courses. This project will produce a set of research-based, field-tested guidelines for final projects in lab courses and examples of them. These guidelines and examples will support instructors in designing projects that are likely to improve students' experimental physics skills. The availability of research-based guidelines will be a significant step toward lowering barriers to designing effective lab projects, which will help prepare students for careers in science and engineering.The goal of the project is to develop a compendium of research-based best practices for multi-week projects in upper-division physics lab courses using a Design-Based Implementation Research approach. The best practices will inform three major aspects of projects: (1) goals and framing of projects; (2) guidelines for the structure of projects, including authentic field-tested exemplars; and (3) guidelines for choosing appropriate assessments and interpreting their results. In particular, these best practices will be developed to promote learning objectives related to students' model-based reasoning skills, troubleshooting skills, expert-like documentation practices, and a sense of ownership over their projects. The best practices will undergo three iterations of research, development, and implementation. Across all three iterations, the project team will investigate the conditions under which student learning objectives are most likely to be met. Multiple types of data will inform the development and refinement of best practices, including student surveys, classroom observations, and interviews with students and instructors. Ultimately, this project will advance understanding of classroom practices that effectively develop students' experimental physics skills.