Speaker: Isaac Barnhill, Physics MS Graduate Student
Abstract: A commonly stated goal of traditional instructional physics labs is to help students gain physics content knowledge, yet a growing body of evidence suggests that labs are falling short of that goal. This has led to many calls to reform physics labs, and inquiry-based labs are one of many attempts at doing so. These labs shift the instructional focus away from reinforcing content from other portions of the course and instead aim to teach students the skills required to perform quantitative experiments in the classroom and beyond. In this thesis, I present a survey of the literature on instructional labs through the lenses of sensemaking and epistemic agency. I also discuss the results of a controlled comparison between content- and inquiry-based curricula for a high-enrollment course at a large public university. I report that the treatment group did not experience significantly different levels of academic success than the control group as measured through midterm exam scores. However, in tension with previous findings, I also report no statistical difference between lab conditions in terms of students' attitudes and beliefs about experimental physics. Finally, I report small but measurable gains in students' critical thinking skills and in affective state in the context of experimental physics. Despite these mixed results, this study serves as yet another indication of both the practicality and the urgent need to improve the undergraduate physics lab experience.