[Phys-L] Re: Lab Reports (was Human Error)

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

Very interesting.  One might assume that this is purely an attitude problem.
OTOH it might be a cognitive problem.  The two are very closely bound
together.  If you do not see the logical necessity for taking care with your
data, then your attitude will be "who cares".  It is also a sociological
problem.  Our society is based on "getting the job done" in the fastest
easiest fashion.  Japanese are trained from birth to be meticulous and to do
a good job as part of a group.

Studio style physics courses (Workshop Physics) which are aimed at improving
conceptual understanding also show the greatest gain on the MPEX, an
attitude survey.  However, do they also show greater gains in the ability to
reliably make and analyze measurements?  To my knowledge, that particular
facet of physics learning has no research based survey instrument yet.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> Some of you may appreciate the spot one of my students reports being in.
> His group (three students
> per group) was doing the Millikan Oil Drop (Pasco).  In collecting their
> data, they had ionized the
> drops for too long using the source in the unit.  This made making
> reliable measurements extremely
> difficult.  This student hoped to go back into the lab (which they did
> have plenty of time to do).
> He writes in his lab report:
>
> "Subequent conversations with the other experimenters revealed that they
> would rather be wrong than
> go into the lab to take more data using the correct method.  So, the
> results reported here will
> likely be wrong."
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