Modeling

Open-ended lab activities are beneficial for students' learning and their beliefs and attitudes about experimental physics. In particular, student-designed multiweek projects are an increasingly common feature in advanced lab courses, where students can design their own questions, experimental procedures, and analysis methods as they engage in authentic experimental practices. In this context, we investigate students' engagement with modeling and their views about the process of experimental physics. 

The term troubleshooting often refers to the process of repairing a malfunctioning apparatus. In this sense, troubleshooting can be thought of as a type of modeling: the physical apparatus is refined in order to bring its performance into better alignment with expectations that are informed by a model for how the apparatus should perform. Troubleshooting is also a type of problem-solving where the solution state is known but the solution path is unknown: "What’s wrong and how do I fix it?"

The Modeling Assessment for Physics Laboratory Experiments (MAPLE) is an assessment that has been developed to measure students' processes of modeling in advanced-level lab classes focusing on either electronics or optics. The assessment consists of two surveys: a pre-test on mechanics (measuring the acceleration due to gravity using a pendulum) and a post-test on either an inverting amplifier circuit or a polarizer setup.

The Experimental Modeling Framework (EMF) is one way to describe the nonlinear, recursive process through which experimental physicists develop, use, and refine models and apparatus. In the context of upper-division physics lab courses, we developed the EMF to characterize students' model-based reasoning and to inform the development of instructional lab environments that engage students in the practice of modeling.  A diagram of the EMF is shown at left, and a pdf is available for download below. 

Models are abstract representations of the real world. A well-defined model is associated with a target system or phenomenon of interest, and can be used for either explanatory and/or predictive purposes. Modeling is the iterative process through which models and systems are brought into better agreement, either by refining the model or the target system itself.  As a practice integral to experimental physics, modeling often appears as a learning goal for undergraduate physics laboratory courses at both the national and local levels.