A research project in Physics Education funded by the National Science Foundation

Effects of instructional technologies on student learning in the undergraduate physics laboratory

Project Summary

The project will focus on the study of MBL and VBL effects on student learning of an important topic in physics: conservation of momentum and energy in collisions. The main goals of the study will be to obtain a greater understanding of what kinds of effects can be expected with MBL and VBL, to directly compare MBL and VBL contributions to learning, and to provide a model for future studies on these technologies.

An experimental setup will be designed that is appropriate for the examination of phenomena that illustrate the principles of conservation of momentum and mechanical energy in different collision situations. This setup will be suitable for analysis with both MBL and VBL so that the effects of these two technologies can be directly compared. A lesson plan, in the form of a prototype laboratory protocol for use with the setup and the possible approaches for analysis, will also be developed. The instructional development process will be documented and disseminated in a technical report to help people interested in developing similar instructional interventions, providing some guidance on development method and design principles in the form of a case study. From a critical review of the literature, the learning variables of significance will be identified and a strong rationale linking some desired outcomes to relevant MBL and VBL characteristics will be developed. The experimental test of the derived hypotheses will be the final component of the project, and will involve students in introductory physics laboratories at Wittenberg. Although the actual research design will depend on the identification of the specific learning variables to be studied, it is likely that the design will involve some combination of a quasi-experimental study involving groups undergoing different levels of the intervention (e.g., only MBL, only VBL, a combination of both), with or without a control group; and other concurrently run studies (e.g., a descriptive, qualitative, in-depth analysis of conceptual changes in selected samples of subjects).

A .pdf file containing selected parts of the full proposal is available here.

Dr. Maan Jiang Broadstock

Dr. Broadstock has been a postdoctoral research associate on this project.
She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Geophysics from the National Central University of Taiwan, and a Ph.D. in Science Education from The Ohio State University.
Dr. Broadstock has experience as an undergraduate physics instructor and as an associate professor of science and mathematics education at National Tainan Teachers' College. She has taught physics, introduction to sciences, qualitative research design in education, and teaching methods courses; also, as part of a long-term research project, she has taught elementary science in grades 3 and 6.
Her research experience includes conducting projects on elementary Earth science funded by the Taiwan National Science Council and the Educational Ministry of Taiwan.
Dr. Broadstock has several publications and has given presentations concerning children's ideas about the Earth.

To contact Dr. Broadstock: mbroadstock@wittenberg.edu

Papers and Presentations

George, E. and Vázquez-Abad, J. Apparatus for investigating momentum and energy conservation with MBL and video analysis. APS/AAPT Joint Meeting, Columbus, OH. April 1998. Click here for this paper.

George, E.A., Broadstock, M.J. and Vázquez-Abad, J. Student Learning in Motion Detector- and Video-based Collision Laboratories.  AAPT Summer Meeting, Guelph, Ontario. August 2000. Click here for this presentation (PDF format).

George, E.A., Broadstock, M.J. and Vázquez-Abad, J. Learning Momentum and Energy Conservation in a Computer-based  Laboratory.  NSTA National Meeting, St. Louis, MO. March 2001. Click here for this presentation.

Broadstock, M.J., George, E.A. and Vázquez-Abad, J.  Learning Momentum and Energy Conservation with Computer Support in an Undergraduate Physics Laboratory.  NARST National Meeting, St. Louis, MO.  March 2001.  Click here for this presentation.
Click here for paper distributed at NARST 2001 meeting (PDF format)

Vázquez-Abad, J., Broadstock, M.J. and George, E.A. Student Understanding of Momentum, Mechanical energy, and Conservation Principles in a Computer-Supported Undergraduate Physics Laboratory. AERA National Meeting, Seattle, WA.  April 2001. Click here for this presentation.

George, Elizabeth.A., Broadstock, M.J. and Vázquez-Abad, J. Observing students' use of computer-based tools during collision experiments. AAPT Summer Meeting, Rochester, NY. July 2001. Click here for this presentation (PDF format).

Other Links

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 9804922.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.