[Phys-L] Re: Human Error?

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

1.  Why rats are smarter than people: A rat goes through a maze to find
the location where there is usually cheese, but no cheese is there.  The
rat will then search for the cheese in a different location in the maze,
and will keep changing the search location until it finds cheese (or so
I've been told).
2.  My experimental colleagues do not quote "errors", they quote
uncertainties, divided into statistical and systematic.
3.  Perhaps your labs are not teaching what you think they are teaching.
That is why both Hake and I went to totally different lab formats.
                                Regards,
                                 Jack



On Fri, 29 Apr 2005, Edmiston, Mike wrote:

> I'm grading lab reports, and it is time to vent some frustration.
>
> How do you feel about students listing "human error" as one of the
> possibilities for why their lab results are not as good as hoped for?
>
> One thing that especially frustrates me is that I tell them early in the
> term that I won't accept it.  By the time the third lab report is handed
> back, I tell them that if they mention "human error" in future lab
> reports I will dock a significant number of points.  Here I am, grading
> the tenth lab report of the term, and I am still getting poor results
> labeled as human error from about 20% of the class.
>
> How did this become so ingrained in their lab-report writing?  Has it
> become standard in high-school reports to list human error as one source
> of error?  It sure appears I am trying to get students to "unlearn"
> something, and I am not winning.
>
> FYI, the rationale I give for never listing human error is that by the
> time you publish your results (i.e. hand in the report) you should have
> eliminated any human error.  If you feel the "straight-line graph"
> should be straighter, or the points should have less scatter, and you
> truly suspect you might have goofed... then go do it again.  Keep doing
> it again and refining your technique until you are convinced human error
> is no longer a likely candidate for the problems you see.  If you still
> feel compelled to list human error, that is, if you still believe human
> error is a likely cause of your poor results, you are not ready to
> publish.
>
> I actually have had students tell me their results might be poor because
> they punched the wrong buttons on their calculators... and they ask,
> "Wouldn't that be human error?"  Well... yes... I guess so.  But would
> you publish (do you want to turn your lab report in) without checking
> for that?
>
> I should also point out that I work in an environment in which sending a
> student back to the lab is a possibility, and it has become routine.  I
> realize some teaching environments do not allow this.
>
> Anyway... my question to this group is... How did reporting "human
> error" as a source of error become so prevalent?  Do any of you want to
> defend it as a reasonable thing to write on a lab report (or in a
> publication)?
>
> Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
> Professor of Chemistry and Physics
> Bluffton University
> Bluffton, OH 45817
> (419)-358-3270
> edmiston@bluffton.edu

--
"Trust me.  I have a lot of experience at this."
                General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
                just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley
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