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Re: [Phys-L] Inference Lab Design

My last post, slightly off task. A story about problem solving, and if you
are not wasnting to be mildly distracted, hit delete now.
----------------------
"Maybe some of you know the story of the chimp closed in an experiment-room
with a banana hanging from the ceiling just out of his reach. A researcher
intending to test the monkey's mental skills enters the room and places a
few large boxes here and there supposing the chimp would use them to reach
the banana. The chimp calmly observes the researcher and as he passes just
under the banana, he springs up and jumps onto the shoulders of the
researcher to grab the coveted fruit. What is the moral of this story? Real
problems never have anticipated solutions and the 'context' of a problem is
as important as the problem itself>.".

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/index_teachers.html

**On 14 August 2012 08:09, Rauber, Joel <Joel.Rauber@sdstate.edu> wrote:

Some non-wikipedia links to Eleusis

http://www.matuszek.org/eleusis1.html
http://howell.seattle.wa.us/games/rules/Eleusis.html

and from the original inventor

http://www.logicmazes.com/games/eleusis/index.html



|-----Original Message-----
|From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Turner,
Jacob
|Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 2:45 PM
|To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
|Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Inference Lab Design
|
|Quite interesting. I'll have to think for a bit to see if I can frame it
properly to
|ensure that the lesson hits home, but this could work to not just get the
idea
|across, but also provide some enjoyment.
|
| You also point out that I was setting myself up for failure by only
thinking
|about approaches which require measurement, when that ability is one of
the
|most limited for the students.
|
|Jacob Turner - (208)885-2730
|Director of Physics Laboratory Education University of Idaho
|
|
|-----Original Message-----
|From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Rauber, Joel
|Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 12:33 PM
|To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
|Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Inference Lab Design
|
|Eleusis
|
|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleusis_%28card_game%29
|
|A simulation of science played with a deck of cards and is all about
making
|inferences.
|
||-----Original Message-----
||From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Turner,
||Jacob
||Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 2:21 PM
||To: phys-l@phys-l.org
||Subject: [Phys-L] Inference Lab Design
||
||I've been banging my head on how to design a lab which will impart a
||sense of using inference. I intend this for our lower level
||(non-calculus) freshman labs, so should be fitting for AP High School
||physics range as well I imagine.
||
||
||
|| General thoughts I have had are to place something in a box and have
||them tell me everything that they can about it without sight or direct
||physical contact. But framing this so they can determine a worthwhile
||quantity of information with minimal direction is a fine line.
||
||
||
|| Another thought was to allow them to make actual measurements of
||something with proper tools (so they know the right value, as long as
||they did things right) then require that they obtain the same
||information by some quantity of other methods, choosing the precise
||number to force them to get creative. This runs the risk of failing to
|
||think of some easy approaches, so groups who think of those ones get
||off easy, and groups who fail to think of something easy which you
||thought to be obvious flounder helplessly trying to fill the arbitrary
|number.
||Plus since it is a measure you already know... it just feels pointless.
||
||
||
||The primary obstacle is that this is intended for the first week in a
||first physics course for students who likely have many unfamiliar with
||any form of scientific thought. If I could use electronics, I have
||many more promising possibilities. But really I can only assume they
||know how to use a few basic
||tools: Balance, ruler, scale, graduated cylinders. And of course
||sight, sound, and tactile senses.
||
||
||
||Right now, I am giving it up as a nice ideal, but not practical.
||Anyone else have some ideas which can get students to think and start
||the semester out with some thought?
||
||
||
||Jacob Turner - (208)885-2730
||
||Director of Physics Laboratory Education
||
||University of Idaho
||
||
||
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||Forum for Physics Educators
||Phys-l@phys-l.org
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