Collaborative Research: Investigating How to Better Prepare Undergraduate Students for Physics Labs that Focus on Experimental Science

该项目旨在通过确定支持学生理解实验科学的策略来服务于国家利益。主要目标是确定教学策略，使本科生更好地准备在物理实验室中进行真正的科学实验。传统的实验室练习训练了学生把教学实验室看作是一个死记硬背的程序，导致已知结果的地方。本项目将探讨如何帮助学生重新构建他们的期望，使他们将物理实验室视为从事科学实验的地方。具体来说，该项目旨在确定策略，帮助学生将物理实验室视为他们设计自己的实验并从收集的数据中得出自己结论的地方。通过与多个机构合作，该项目将提供许多学生真实科学实验室活动的例子，以及学生工作和参与的广泛数据库。后者将记录学生从不同背景中为他们的科学实验室工作带来的丰富多样的资源和经验。本项目旨在通过框架的理论视角，了解学生在非传统科学实验室，特别是物理实验室的体验。在这里，人的框架被定义为对正在发生的活动的一组稳定的（局部的或更全局的）期望。先前的文献表明，小事情会影响学生构建教学活动的方式，而这反过来又会对学生的学习产生很大的影响。本研究项目旨在(a)确定学生在各种非传统实验室中构建活动的各种方式，(b)确定学生转变或改变他们构建实验室活动的方式，以及(c)制定可测试的预测，以帮助学生建立稳定、富有成效的实验科学框架。该项目得到了EHR核心研究计划的支持，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究，扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。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。

This project aims to serve the national interest by identifying strategies to support students’ understanding of experimental science. The major goal is to identify instructional strategies that better prepare undergraduate students for doing authentic scientific experimentation in physics labs. Traditional laboratory exercises have trained students to view instructional laboratories as places to do rote procedures that lead to known results. This project will probe how to help students reframe their expectations so that they consider physics labs as places to engage in scientific experiementation. Specifically, this project intends to identify strategies that help students think of physics labs as places where they will design their own experiments and draw their own conclusions from the data they collect. By working across multiple institutions, the project will provide many examples of students’ authentic science laboratory activities, as well an extensive database of students' work and engagement. The latter will document the rich diversity of resources and experiences students bring from their diverse backgrounds to their science laboratory work. This project aims to understand student experiences in non-traditional science labs, specifically physics, through the theoretical lens of framing. A person's frame is defined here as a stable (either local or more global) set of expectations about the activity taking place. Prior literature suggests that small things can influence the ways students frame an instructional activity, which in turn can have a large impact on student learning. This research project is designed to (a) identify the various ways students frame activities in a diverse set of non-traditional labs, (b) identify ways students shift or change how they frame lab activities, and (c) formulate testable predictions for ways to help students develop stable, productive frames for experimental science. This project is supported by the EHR Core Research program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.