Work in progress - The use of team-based learning in an experimental physics lab

Abstract

Team-based learning (TBL) is a teaching method which emphasizes learning through teamwork rather than from traditional lecturing methods. This paper describes the integration of TBL with the physics laboratory courses at New Mexico State University. Previous laboratory classes were run using an inquiry based method. Implementation of TBL was designed to enhance the willingness of the students to participate in the inquiry process by adding more structure to the assessment of student progress. The change to TBL in the laboratory courses was designed to point students toward a hands-on, experimental approach to physics. The content portion of the TBL was the experiment itself. Students were asked to complete a RAT (readiness assessment test) after working the experiment. The activity portion of the TBL was incorporated through assigned homework for each student. Teaching assistants for each lab section made recorded observations of the students, both individually and as teams. This observation and subsequent discussion with the teaching assistants and students revealed three interesting findings. First, the students in the TBL course were more likely to create and implement their own experiments to solve the problems expounded in the RATs. Second, the students in the college physics lab (biologists, chemists, and engineering technologists, as well as pre-med and pre-vet students) were the first to recognize the goal of the lab and engage in hands-on experimentation. Students in the engineering physics lab took twice as long to make the connection. Third, the teaching assistants' observations indicated an increase in understanding of the experimental process by the students. They also commented that student confidence was enhanced over that exhibited in the previous lab classes.