What do we expect from students' physics laboratory experiments?

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We want physics specialized high school and college students to think like physicists, and this involves an understanding of the scientific methods of inquiry and the ability to use these methods in their own investigations. In order to do that, students have to be made aware that no experimental result has any physical meaning unless an estimate of the uncertainty or precision is assigned to it. In this paper, we describe two simple experiments in which high school and college students measure physical constants, and make an easy analysis of their experimental data by applying the tools offered by microcomputers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)221-228
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Science Education and Technology
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

Keywords

  • Experimental uncertainties
  • Measurement of refractive index
  • Spreadsheet analysis
  • Verification of Coulomb's Law

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • General Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'What do we expect from students' physics laboratory experiments?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this