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Re: Most experiments are performed in labs



I can only endorse most of what Michael has to say, but would still like to
comment on what appear to be some differences:

At 11:25 AM 7/12/00 -0400, Michael Edmiston wrote:
I try to be receptive when students use different words than I would use, as
long as their words are reasonably accurate and/or in common usage.
Occasionally I make alternative suggestions, but I only penalize the student
for more serious faults such as incomplete sentences, subject-verb problems,

I don't get much of this as my students are mostly quite literate in their
own languages. They may have a range of odd styles in English as a result,
but this is beyond the scope of the physics course.


etc. Therefore I personally would not object to student use of "lab" when I
would prefer "experiment" if the sole criterion were whether "lab" is a
generally accepted substitute for "experiment."

However, I do not let students use the word "lab" in place of "experiment"
for a different reason.

The word "let" bothers me slightly. The register of the language we use in
class emerges from the nature of the activity we are doing. I'm perfectly
happy to discuss how many "labs" we're going to do next term, while we
would naturally change register and talk about the requirements for setting
up the "experiment" *when that is indeed what we are doing*.


I ask the students to write every report in
publication style. They must act as practicing scientists doing legitimate
experiments then publishing the results. This means I do not permit wording
such as, "We were supposed to measure..." or "We were told to..." etc. I
keep telling them... "Don't write your report from a student's perspective;
write it from a scientist's perspective."

A close paraphrase of what I tell classes about how to write lab reports.
Or used to. Unfortunately, the IB assessment procedures for lab work have
become rather specific, and although the specifics look good on paper, one
ends up making students jump through a series of hoops, which I detest, but
that is a different thread.

In this situation I believe "lab" connotes a student endeavor that might be
fairly cookbook in nature. Even if I give fairly explicit directions, I
want the students to pretend it was not a cookbook lab.

Yes, a lot of good teaching is about pretending. But I don't find a need to
pretend here. Much of the time, the labs will be "labs" as described. We
aspire to make them into experiments, and occasionally we succeed.


If the student
approaches data acquisition and analysis as a scientific experiment as
opposed to "a stupid lab the professor made me do," I think it sets a whole
new tone for the overall experience (as well as giving them practice writing
scientific reports).

Yes, but it's not very good when not only did the professor make me do this
stupid lab, but the silly fool also insists that it's some kind of
*experiment*
(and I'm thinking of myself as the silly fool here, not any other
correspondents in this thread).

Although this approach is far from successful for
every student, when it is successful I think it not only makes the
experiment more enjoyable, but also encourages them to ask more questions,

Absolutely. I teach small classes, and can spend time discussing with
people what they are doing during lab sessions, and use this possibility to
point them to the real experiments - and there are always interesting
questions which even the best students will not be able to answer in
advance. Sometimes the interest is caught, and then as we know something
rewarding happens.

and to ask questions in a more interesting way. They might ask, "What could
I do to get this to come out better?" rather than saying, "Is this good
enough?" They sometimes even ask if they can try some alternative
approaches.

Great. I find that it's particular types of exercises that have the keenies
coming back for more. Typically the more open ended ones will have somebody
wanting to come in for an extra session to try something out. Most of the
time, however, we do have to ask "is this good enough" at some point
because resources are finite, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Language: a tool for initiating the right kind of activity vs. language: a
mirror that reflects the nature of the activity. It's both, of course. I
guess what I'm after is a naturalness and sincerity in how we communicate,
which comes before the pedagogy and the physics, and which I hope I can say
is fundamental to how I deal with students.

Mark

Mark Sylvester
United World College of the Adriatic
34013 Duino TS
Italy.