generated from mwc/project_argument
47 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
# Project proposal
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## Overarching Question
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### What central question are you interested in exploring? Why are you interested in exploring this question?
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The central question is to examine the ways the computer-interfacing measurement devices are used in introductory college physics laboratories, and how they are
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connected to changes in students' epistemological beliefs and attitudes towards experimentation / laboratory. Computer-interfacing measurement devices are
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commonly used for collection and visualization of real-time physical data. Most physics instructors accept that these experiences can facilitate the development
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of both mathematical and conceptual models. However, there have not been many studies which explore the learning processes underlying these assumptions, and
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learning experiences from the use of these devices in laboratory settings are not well-understood. Additionally, a growing body of research has shown that the
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roles that learners adopt in physics laboratory learning settings are inequitably distributed by gender, with women undertaking more secretarial and management
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roles and men undertaking more tinkering and experimenting roles. Although how gender may be connected to learners' experiences using computer-interfacing
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measurment devices is not well documented, it is possible that similar dynamics plague the use of these technologies, and consequently impact how much learners
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benefit.
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### What specific research questions will you investigate?
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Is there a significant relationship between the instructor's rating of mathematical focus frequency in introductory physics labs and the reported frequency of use
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of computer to interface with measurement devices? Is there a significant relationship between the instructor's rating of conceptual focus frequency in introductory
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physics labs and the reported frequency of use of computer to interface with measurement devices?
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## Data source
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### What data set will you use to answer your overarching question?
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Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS) - Course Information Survey
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https://github.com/Lewandowski-Labs-PER/eclass-public/tree/master
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### Where is this data from?
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The Lewandoski Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder developed and validated the data collection instrument, and made the dataset publicly accessible and
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available for additional research use. This is a well-established Physics Education Research (and Experimental Cold Molecular Physics) lab at an R1 university
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that has published many studies concerning this dataset (and others). https://jila.colorado.edu/lewandowski/publications/scientific/year
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### What is this data about?
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The course information survey of the E-CLASS contains 494 responses (rows) from instructors (pre-cleaning), for each class they administered the E-CLASS survey to.
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Columns which will be important to me are Q15 (Type of institution), Q36_1 (Modeling - Develop mathematical models for the system being studied),
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Q36_2 (Modeling - Develop conceptual models for the system being studied), and Q37_4 (Data analysis and visualization - Use computers to interface with
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measurement devices).
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## Methods
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### How will you use your data set to answer your quantitative questions?
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1) Is there a significant relationship between the instructor's rating of mathematical focus frequency in introductory physics labs and the reported frequency of use
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of computer to interface with measurement devices?
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I will perform a ordinal regression to model this data. I will present the answer in a scatterplot and with ordinal regression statistics.
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2) Is there a significant relationship between the instructor's rating of conceptual focus frequency in introductory
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physics labs and the reported frequency of use of computer to interface with measurement devices?
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I will perform a ordinal regression to model this data. I will present the answer in a scatter and with ordinal regression statistics. |