Engaging theoretically primed students in second year lab courses

Abstract

During their second year, about 50 undergraduate physics students engage in an open inquiry lab course of 56 hours that prepares them for their bachelor research project. Two combined theory-practical courses (of which 84 hours are spent in the lab) precede this open inquiry course. These preceding courses focus on specific research skills or the use of new theory in experiments (among others the Fourier transform and signal processing). These courses are based on Holmes’ SQI-model. The final open inquiry course that focuses on general research skills is based on Etkina’s ISLE-model. From literature we have identified 5 educational design criteria to engage students in such lab courses and implemented them. One of these was effective in our implementation. We have found that quantitative physics research as opposed to design research or focusing on certain skills is needed to make our theoretically-primed students appreciate our lab courses more. It helped our students to see the meaning of our experiments better and see the need for what we want them to learn in our lab courses. For the other 4 design criteria anecdotal evidence was found shedding some light on the way in which they may work.