ERIC Number: EJ1409560
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2469-9896
Available Date: N/A
Enhancing Students' Views of Experimental Physics through a Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience
Physical Review Physics Education Research, v19 n2 Article 020151 2023
Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have emerged as a promising approach to enhance undergraduate STEM education by engaging students in authentic discovery. CUREs integrate genuine research projects into undergraduate courses, providing students with a real research experience while earning academic credit. While CUREs offer similar benefits to traditional research experiences, they have the advantage of reaching a larger student population and being accessible to all enrolled students. In this study, we assess the outcomes of the first reported large-enrollment physics CURE within an introductory physics laboratory. One of the primary learning objectives of this CURE, which took place at the University of Colorado Boulder from 2020 to 2021, was to foster the development of more expertlike attitude and beliefs about experimental physics among the students. To evaluate the impact of the CURE along this dimension, we employed the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS). Precourse and postcourse E-CLASS responses were collected from the CURE participants and compared with data from 363 other first-year physics labs, representing over 20 000 students. We found that students enrolled in the C-PhLARE CURE led to significantly higher scores on many of the E-CLASS items, even when controlling for precourse scores, students' majors, and students' genders. In particular, we observed that the C-PhLARE CURE had a significant effect on many of the E-CLASS items aligned with the objectives of the course; notably, students had more expertlike views in areas such as communicating scientific findings to peers, understandings of authentic research practices, and students' belief in their own research capabilities. Additionally, we found no statistically significant negative impacts on any of the E-CLASS items as compared to the effects of other first-year physics labs. These results demonstrate the efficacy of this CURE in impacting students' views of experimental physics.
Descriptors: Student Attitudes, Physics, Research Training, Undergraduate Students, Science Education, Universities, Large Group Instruction, Outcomes of Education, Educational Objectives, Introductory Courses, Laboratory Experiments, Student Surveys
American Physical Society. One Physics Ellipse 4th Floor, College Park, MD 20740-3844. Tel: 301-209-3200; Fax: 301-209-0865; e-mail: assocpub@aps.org; Web site: https://journals.aps.org/prper/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Materials Research (DMR); National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Physics (PHY)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Colorado (Boulder)
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1548924; 2317149
Author Affiliations: N/A