Collaborative Research: Assessment of Student Understanding of Measurement and Uncertainty in Experimental Physics

本项目由美国国家科学基金会改进本科STEM教育计划：教育与人力资源（IUSE: EHR）资助，旨在通过改进学生对物理实验入门课程理解的评估来服务于国家利益。该项目侧重于物理学核心的两个关键概念：实验和测量不确定性。实验在物理学中对于新知识和新技术的发展起着核心作用。许多学生对实验的入门都是在物理实验课程中进行的。这些课程的共同学习目标是让学生了解如何进行测量，以及这些测量具有一定程度的不确定性。该项目意义重大，因为它将使用借鉴学习和测量理论的现代评估框架来开发更好的工具来衡量学生对这些概念的理解。该评估将提供给所有实验室入门课程的教师，以便他们可以衡量学生的成果，并使用这些信息迭代地提高学生的学习。这个项目的动机是需要评估学生在物理实验课程的学习成果。这项工作将记录物理实验室社区在评估学生对测量和不确定度的理解方面的集体需求。它的范围将包括记录学生展示他们对这些概念的理解的无数方式。通过使用现代评估框架（例如，以证据为中心的设计）和完善的有效性框架（例如，项目反应理论），pi将提供基于当前评估设计最佳实践的学生对物理理解的第一次评估。虽然这项研究是基础的，对未来在实验室环境下学生学习的研究有直接的影响，但它也将在物理教学中具有实用价值。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by improving assessment of student understanding in introductory physics laboratory courses. The project focuses on two critical concepts that are central to physics: experimentation and measurement uncertainty. Experimentation plays a central role in physics for the development of both new knowledge and technology. Many students' introduction to experimentation happens in physics laboratory courses. A common learning objective for these courses is for students understand how to make measurements and that these measurements have a level of uncertainty. This project is significant because it will use modern assessment frameworks that draw on learning and measurement theory to develop a better tool to measure students' understanding of these concepts. This assessment will be available to all instructors of introductory laboratory courses, so that they can measure student outcomes and use this information iteratively improve student learning.This project is motivated by the need to assess student learning outcomes in physics laboratory courses. This work will document the collective needs of the physics laboratory community regarding assessing student understanding of measurement and uncertainty. Its scope will include documenting the myriad ways in which students present their understanding of these concepts. By using modern assessment frameworks (e.g., Evidence Centered Design) with well-established validity frameworks (e.g., Item Response Theory), the PIs will provide the first assessment of student understanding in physics that is grounded in the current best practices of assessment design. Although this research is foundational, with direct implications for future studies of student learning in laboratory settings, it will also have practical value in teaching physics. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.