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The purpose is to get the students to work on their own, gain
direct experience in thinking through problems, and making decisions with
regard to data. For this sophomore/junior level course I am trying to
simulate a realistic experimental research environment. The difference is
that the experiments are well-understood in terms of the physics. They
don't have to design apparatus; just set it up and calibrate it. But they
have to learn to make the proper choices. They have, on average, two
weeks in which to perform a particular lab, so this isn't something that
is done in one 3 hour afternoon session. They have time to make mistakes
and then learn from them.
Amen, brother.
This is a good practice; it doesn't deserve to
be tagged with pejorative words like "obfuscation".