Outline of Discussion Physics 4810 7810 Week 12 high noon Day 21 Fa2008 Labs Lab Skills and Scientific Reasoning Eyes to web Project DRAFT due next week Then BREAK Clarifications A wee bit on Theory Goals of Labs Scaffolding Supporting Students Instructors in Labs Developing Scientific Skills Conclusion the minimum energy state theorem Clarification What is the Lawson Test I would not give the students such a handout Give them a computer and maybe a few books This is how real problem solving is done after all Theory of Transfer Clarification When you hold a variable as a covariate what does that mean Is that basically normalizing for how well students did on the Lawson s pre test Yes However I m not comfortable with p 0 001 Remember to think about effect size vs stat significance think pedagogical significance Preparation for Future Learning Actor Network Theory Not actors in theater but people in networks Coordination Classes diSessa s work beyond p prims how we coordinate assemble these into concepts Preparation for Future Learning Different goal of assessment D Schwartz AAALab Stanford 1 Theory of Transfer What is definition of transfer What does it say about nature of knowledge knowledge moves from one domain to another assumes i knowledge is a fixed thing to be moved ii you know what to look for Modifying notion of Transfer Lobato caveat look for what moves rather than what hope thought would move What if we don t think of knowledge as a fixed thing What if we study the ability to engage in different environments Recognize similarities What are we teaching in our labs Goals of Labs the design students are given the same type of activity they have already been given for 10 weeks I would expect the design group to design better labs than the non design group since they spent the whole semester practicing do we teach the students on how to take the exam Redish Assumptions about labs Hidden Hypothesis of Traditional Labs learn content maybe taught ability to manipulate equipment maybe taught learn scientific reasoning skills assumed to come along for ride identified assumptions and evaluated their effect on the result or validated them It also shows that no nondesign students did this When would the non design students have learned to do this Were they ever instructed to identify assumptions in the traditional labs Skills Development what skills are necessary taught in Traditional Lab Design Lab Parallels idea of conceptual understanding 2 what skills needed by Scientific Researcher Supporting Development Technician Consider various forms of inquiry or design i Raw here s a buck of water dishsoap and a wisk ii Challenge make the tallest soap bubble tower possible possible reflection where why are the small and large bubbles located iii Recipe step a e What do students prefer Why Challenges Student expectations epistemology Habits of Mind What is going on during design labs This type of lab class is the one I would say I would have freaked out over in my first year Faculty expectations epistemology I will say that running a design lab sounds much more difficult than a traditional lab What do faculty need to do differently What are additional things faculty need to know Low Energy Hypothesis Students have an uncanny ability to find the lowenergy state solution path to performing Corollary if we could harness this we d be stinking rich Additional Corollary if the low energy state solution is the path of learning we all win Corollary Corollary relevant interesting authentic practices usually link learning and performance Vote for next week Representation Analogy A true pie chart Preparation for Future Learning 3