Improving the Scientific Communication Skills of Students in Introductory Physics Lab Courses Using an Organized Scaffold of Formative and Summative Writing Assignments

物理(13)题：传统的入门物理实验室作业要求学生完成工作表或为一系列简短的个人练习中的每一个写正式的实验报告。在进行下一次实验之前，学生们经常会重复他们那周学到的知识，然后把它忘掉。因此，学生往往对物理事实只是表面上的了解，而不是对物理概念的深入理解。目标和结果：这个项目的目标是更有效地使用入门实验室中的写作作为一种工具来提高学生的物理学习，并使入门实验室更接近于研究。该项目正在改变实验室的传统方法，同时使用大多数大学物理实验室中已经存在的实验和设备。它还在开发助教培训材料，使本科生的助教能够对学生论文中提出的科学论点提供有效的反馈。方法：该项目使用了一种方法，将较短的实验室作业分成几组实验，这些实验涉及相同的物理概念，如牛顿第二定律。每周的正式实验室报告随后被总结性论文取代，这些论文要求学生讨论各个实验室经验如何结合在一起，形成所讨论的物理概念的更大图景(S)。在这个过程中，学生既磨练了他们对物理概念的理解，也磨练了提出科学论点并通过适当的数据引用来逻辑地支持它的关键技能。马凯特大学物理系正在与写作中心合作，修改由Brian Hand和Vaughan Prain开发的成熟的科学写作启发式，用于评估形成性草稿写作作业和结束性论文。这些材料正在以代数为基础的物理的大部分中进行测试，然后进行修改和Beta测试。观众：该项目的初始阶段面向代数物理实验室入门的学生和正在给报告评分的本科生助教。Beta测试阶段使用的材料包括工科学生的微积分物理课程和职前教师的理科课程调查。智力价值：这个项目结合并改编了几个学科的经过验证的教学思路，形成了一个连贯的模型，以改善入门物理实验室中的科学交流。它特别侧重于语言交流在学生吸收科学概念中所起的作用，这些学生没有为物理入门做好最佳的数学准备。更广泛的影响：将相关经验分组的方法鼓励学生超越特定实验室练习的细节，着眼于实验结果的更广泛的理论背景。它还鼓励学生对科学过程进行元认知分析。因此，它不仅可以应用于物理学入门，也可以应用于其他科学课程和全国大学未来科学教师的培训。

Physics (13) Problem: Traditional introductory physics laboratory assignments ask students to complete worksheets or to write formal laboratory reports for each of a series of short individual exercises. All too often, students regurgitate the information they have acquired that week and forget it before the next experiment is performed. Therefore, students frequently develop only a superficial acquaintance with physics facts rather than a deeper understanding of physics concepts. Objectives and Outcomes: The goal of this project is to use writing in introductory laboratories more effectively as a tool to improve student learning of physics and to make the introductory labs more closely resemble research. The project is changing the traditional approach to laboratories while using experiments and equipment already found in most university physics laboratories. It also is developing TA training materials that prepare undergraduate teaching assistants to give effective feedback on scientific arguments presented in their students' papers. Methodology: The project uses a method of grouping shorter laboratory assignments into clusters of experiments that deal with the same physical concept, such as Newton's Second Law. Weekly formal laboratory reports are then replaced with summative papers that ask students to discuss the ways in which the individual laboratory experiences work together to form a bigger picture of the physical concept(s) in question. In the process, students hone both their understanding of the physics concepts and the critical skill of presenting a scientific argument and supporting it logically with appropriate references to the data. The Marquette University Department of Physics is collaborating with the Writing Center to adapt a proven science writing heuristic developed by Brian Hand and Vaughan Prain for use in assessing both the formative draft writing assignments and the summative papers. These materials are being tested in large sections of algebra-based physics, then revised and beta tested. Audience: The initial phase of the project addresses both the students in introductory algebra-based physics laboratories and the undergraduate teaching assistants who are grading their reports. The beta testing phase uses the materials with the calculus-based physics course for engineering students and the survey of science course for pre-service teachers. Intellectual Merit: This project combines and adapts proven pedagogical threads from several disciplines to form a coherent model to improve scientific communication in the introductory physics laboratory. It focuses specifically on the role that verbal communication plays in the assimilation of science concepts by students with less than optimal mathematical preparation for introductory physics. Broader Impacts: The method of grouping related experiences encourages students to look beyond the particulars of a specific laboratory exercise to the broader theoretical contexts for the experimental results. It also encourages students to engage in meta-cognitive analysis of the scientific process. As such, it can be applied not only to introductory physics, but to other science courses and to the training of future science teachers at universities nation-wide.