Lippmann-Kung, Am J Phys (2005)

Teaching the Concepts of Measurement: One example of a concept-based laboratory course

R. Lippmann-Kung, American Journal of Physics, 73, p 771-777 (2005).

Abstract: For students to successfully complete an experiment, they must have an understanding of measurement and its related uncertainty.We argue for teaching the concepts of measurement and not only the calculations. An example of a concepts-based laboratory course is given, outlining the concepts presented, the design of the laboratory time, and the laboratory tasks. The concepts are briefly described and two often-overlooked concepts, predictive versus descriptive questions and internal versus external variation, are explained. Our survey results show that the fraction of students using range and not just average when comparing two data sets approximately doubled after instruction.

Lippmann-Kung, AREA Meeting (2002)

Analyzing Students' Use of Metacognition During Laboratory Activities

R. Lippmann-Kung, AREA Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2002). 

Abstract: In this paper we use a discourse analysis tool to investigate student behavior in different types of laboratories, from more traditional to free inquiry labs. We also correlate students’ behavior with their explicit metacognitive statements, which allows us to differentiate between productive and unproductive metacognition.