Inquiry-based experimental physics: Twenty years of an evidence-based, laboratory-based physics course for algebra-based physics students

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] This paper presents a historical analysis of the development, implementation, research, and assessment of an evidence-based introductory algebra-based physics course. The course is laboratory based and taught with an inquiry-based pedagogy. The course has remained unique and has been taught consistently for over 20 years. It is taught predominantly to health science majors and is completely laboratory based without a lecture and without a required text. Students learn by working through a guided inquiry manual in groups, doing experiments to explore the nature of the world around them. They develop both quantitative and qualitative models based on their experiments. The focus is as much on critical thinking, modeling, and thinking like a scientist, as on physics content. I discuss the course throughout the years, presented in the context of the field of physics education research historically and the state of our department locally. The results of multiple forms of assessment are presented chronologically. The assessments were designed to answer research questions about the students’ conceptual understanding and thinking skills, the effects of class size expansion, and questions about learning assistants’ pedagogical content knowledge. One finding was that the conceptual understanding of students in the inquiry-based course was significantly higher than students taught traditionally but not significantly different from students taught by other research-informed pedagogies. However, we found that students taught in the inquiry-based format showed more evidence of the application of thinking skills as assessed by our thinking skills rubric in free-response exam problems. We have demonstrated that it is possible to expand a laboratory-based, inquiry-based physics course from sections of 24 students to sections of 60 students with the help of learning assistants and we have developed and validated a set of questions that can be used to measure learning assistants’ pedagogical content knowledge or for learning assistant training purposes.

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Figure 1

Algebra-based FCI normalized gain by laboratory and teaching style. The data are listed by laboratory/teaching style ($N=number$ of students) percentage total grade allotted to laboratories plus recitation. Lab styles are labeled by traditional, Real Time Physics. The lecture teaching styles are labeled by traditional lecture, PER-informed and inquiry-based instruction.

Figure 2

Algebra-based BEMA normalized gain by laboratory and teaching style. The data are listed by laboratory/teaching style ($N=number$ of students) percentage total grade allotted to laboratories plus recitation. Lab styles are labeled by Real Time Physics and locally written PER-informed. The lecture teaching styles are labeled by traditional lecture, PER-informed lecture, and inquiry-based instruction.

Figure 3

The thinking skills rubric.

Figure 4

A problem administered to two algebra-based physics sections, one INQ, one traditional, both taught by the same instructor, the same semester, different pedagogies.

Figure 5

The results of the general rubric applied to two algebra-based physics sections, one INQ, one traditional, part (a). Same instructor, different pedagogies.

Figure 6

The results of the general rubric applied to two algebra-based physics sections, one INQ, one more traditional, part (b). Same instructor, different pedagogies.

Figure 7

A problem administered to four algebra-based physics sections, one small (24 students) INQ in 2010, one traditional interactive-engagement (80 students) in 2010, two larger (60 students) INQ sections in 2017 and 2019. All classes had the same instructor.

Figure 8

The results of the general rubric applied to four algebra-based physics sections, one small (24 students) INQ, one traditional interactive-engagement (80 students) in 2010, two larger INQ (60 students) in 2017 and 2019, part (a). Same instructor for all sections.

Figure 9

The results of the general rubric applied to four algebra-based physics sections, one small (24 students) INQ, one traditional interactive-engagement (80 students) in 2010, two larger INQ (60 students) in 2017 and 2019, part (b). Same instructor for all sections.

Figure 10

Example Classical Mechanics example question.

Figure 11

Example Electricity and Magnetism example question.

Figure 12

Average occurrence of PCK-Q levels over multiple vignettes for TTU students.

Figure 13

Average occurrence of PCK-Q levels over multiple vignettes for FIU students during Spring 2021.

Figure 14

Percentage of occurrences for PCK-Q levels over multiple free-response questions for FIU students during Fall 2020.

Figure 15

Sample Classical Mechanics question 1.

Figure 16

Sample Classical Mechanics question 2.