IOLAB: Using Technology to Transform Introductory Physics Labs

这个项目正在开发、评估和传播一种创新的在线互动实验室学习方法，用于物理入门课程。通过SmartLab学习软件和在线数据库的指导和评估，SmartLab允许学生在任何地方-在家里、在宿舍、在教室-促进动手实验，从而测量真实世界中的事物。SmartLab方法的核心是与私营行业合作开发的一种小型且廉价的无线探头，它能够快速准确地测量位移、速度、加速度、力、磁场和电势差。这些数据通过无线链路发送到运行SmartLab应用程序的PC，该应用程序还与在线数据库通信，以检索精心设计的教案。该软件指导学生完成课程，记录和分析他们获得的数据，并提供关于学生实践活动表现的实时反馈，以及学生对课程中嵌入的问题的回答。NSF支持该项目的一个主要焦点是一项物理教育研究工作，旨在实际优化SmartLab方法，同时研究不同利用方法的利弊。研究人员正在研究动手智能实验室活动对关键物理概念记忆的影响，因为这些活动几乎与概念介绍同时进行。这类研究对在大学、学院和高中为这种新方法建立良好的教学基础起到了关键作用。SmartLab使学生能够在最大限度地提高学习体验的时间和地点进行完整的动手实验室体验，无论这是在上课前、每周家庭作业的一部分，还是在现有的实验期间。除了为传统物理课程提供强大的工具外，SmartLab还具有巨大的潜力，适用于目前不提供动手体验的课程，如学生在线学习的课程，或者预算或空间限制不允许使用实验室的课程。SmartLab方法固有的可扩展性，再加上它可以被教职员工以非常有限的时间和资源投入采用，这意味着它对美国物理教育的影响可能会在很短的时间内变得重大。

This project is developing, evaluating, and disseminating an innovative online approach to interactive laboratory learning for introductory physics courses. SmartLab allows students to measure things in the real world by facilitating hands-on experiments anywhere - in their home, in their dorm, in their classroom - guided and evaluated by the SmartLab learning software and online database. At the heart of the SmartLab approach is a small and inexpensive wireless probe, developed in collaboration with private industry, which has the ability to rapidly perform accurate measurements of displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, magnetic fields, and potential differences. These data are sent over a wireless link to a PC running the SmartLab application which also communicates with an online database to retrieve carefully designed lesson plans. The software guides students through the lesson, recording and analyzing the data they acquire, and provides real-time feedback on the student's performance of the hands-on activities as well as the student's answers to questions embedded in the lesson. A primary focus of NSF support for this project is a physics education research effort to practically optimize the SmartLab approach while studying the pros and cons of differing methods of utilization. Researchers are determining how the retention of key physics concepts is impacted by hands-on SmartLab activities, as they are performed at nearly the same time as the conceptual introduction. Such research plays a key role in building a sound pedagogical footing for this new approach in universities, colleges and high schools. SmartLab enables a complete hands-on laboratory experience for students to perform at a time and place that maximizes the learning experience, whether this is before a lecture, part of a weekly homework assignment, or during an existing lab period. In addition to providing a powerful tool for traditional physics courses, SmartLab has tremendous potential for courses which currently do not offer a hands-on experience, such as those taken by students online, or courses where budget or space constraints preclude a lab. The inherently scalable nature of the SmartLab approach, combined with the fact that it can be adopted by faculty members with a very modest investment in time and resources, means its impact on American physics education may become significant on a short timescale.