Description:

Abstract: Traditionally in instructional labs students verified accepted knowledge and applied knowledge to solve simple problems where the answer could be compared to an “accepted value”. In both types of labs students had to learn “theory” first. Changes in science education, and specifically in physics education, call for the new type of labs: the labs where students develop and test their own ideas and participate in authentic physics practices.  How do we structure those labs and do they lead to student learning? In this talk I will share the findings of more than 15 years of studies of such labs and will provide recommendations on how to structure them to make students successful. 

Speaker: Eugenia Etkina, Distinguished Professor of Science Education, Learning, and Teaching, Rutgers University

Host: Jacob McLaughlin