Detail Page

Physical Review Physics Education Research
written by Benjamin Pollard, Robert Hobbs, Rachel Henderson, Marcos D. Caballero, and H. J. Lewandowski
Introductory physics lab courses serve as the starting point for students to learn and experience experimental physics at the undergraduate level. They often focus on measurement uncertainty, an essential topic for practicing physicists and a foundation for more advanced lab learning. As such, measurement uncertainty has been a focus when studying and improving introductory physics lab courses. There is a need for a research-based assessment explicitly focused on measurement uncertainty that captures the breadth of learning related to the topic, and that has been developed and documented in an evidence-centered way. In this work, we present the first step in the development of such an assessment, with the goal of establishing the breadth and depth of the domain of measurement uncertainty in introductory physics labs. We conducted and analyzed interviews with introductory physics lab instructors across the US, identifying prevalent concepts and practices related to measurement uncertainty, and their level of emphasis in introductory physics labs. We find that instructors discuss a range of measurement uncertainty topics beyond basic statistical ideas like mean and standard deviation, including those connected to modeling, another lab learning goal. We describe how these findings will be used in the subsequent development of the assessment, called the Survey Of Physics Reasoning On Uncertainty Concepts In Experiments (SPRUCE).
Physical Review Physics Education Research: Volume 17, Issue 1, Pages 010133
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education Foundations
- Assessment
= Instruments
- Student Characteristics
= Skills
General Physics
- Measurement/Units
= Error
- Physics Education Research
- Upper Undergraduate
- Reference Material
= Article
= Research study
Intended Users Formats Ratings
- Researchers
- Administrators
- Educators
- application/pdf
- text/html
  • Currently 0.0/5

Want to rate this material?
Login here!


Access Rights:
Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
Rights Holder:
American Physical Society
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133
NSF Numbers:
DUE-1914840
DUE-1913698
PHY-1734006
Keywords:
RBAI, SPRUCE, concept inventory, concept inventory development, instrument precision, junior lab course, lab instructor survey, physics labs, relative error, research-based assessment instrument, systematic error
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created May 12, 2021 by Bruce Mason
Record Updated:
February 10, 2022 by Caroline Hall
Last Update
when Cataloged:
May 6, 2021
Other Collections:

ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!

Record Link
AIP Format
B. Pollard, R. Hobbs, R. Henderson, M. Caballero, and H. Lewandowski, , Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17 (1), 010133 (2021), WWW Document, (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133).
AJP/PRST-PER
B. Pollard, R. Hobbs, R. Henderson, M. Caballero, and H. Lewandowski, Introductory physics lab instructors’ perspectives on measurement uncertainty, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17 (1), 010133 (2021), <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133>.
APA Format
Pollard, B., Hobbs, R., Henderson, R., Caballero, M., & Lewandowski, H. (2021, May 6). Introductory physics lab instructors’ perspectives on measurement uncertainty. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res., 17(1), 010133. Retrieved May 2, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133
Chicago Format
Pollard, B, R. Hobbs, R. Henderson, M. Caballero, and H. Lewandowski. "Introductory physics lab instructors’ perspectives on measurement uncertainty." Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17, no. 1, (May 6, 2021): 010133, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133 (accessed 2 May 2025).
MLA Format
Pollard, Benjamin, Robert Hobbs, Rachel Henderson, Marcos D. Caballero, and Heather J. Lewandowski. "Introductory physics lab instructors’ perspectives on measurement uncertainty." Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 17.1 (2021): 010133. 2 May 2025 <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Benjamin Pollard and Robert Hobbs and Rachel Henderson and Marcos D. Caballero and Heather J. Lewandowski", Title = {Introductory physics lab instructors’ perspectives on measurement uncertainty}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {17}, Number = {1}, Pages = {010133}, Month = {May}, Year = {2021} }
Refer Export Format

%A Benjamin Pollard %A Robert Hobbs %A Rachel Henderson %A Marcos D. Caballero %A Heather J. Lewandowski %T Introductory physics lab instructors' perspectives on measurement uncertainty %J Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. %V 17 %N 1 %D May 6, 2021 %P 010133 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Pollard, Benjamin %A Hobbs, Robert %A Henderson, Rachel %A Caballero, Marcos D. %A Lewandowski, Heather J. %D May 6, 2021 %T Introductory physics lab instructors' perspectives on measurement uncertainty %J Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. %V 17 %N 1 %P 010133 %8 May 6, 2021 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.010133


Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.

Citation Source Information

The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual.

The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References.

The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation.

The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ.

Save to my folders

Contribute

Similar Materials