Over the summer 2005, Professors Munsat and Finkelstein have significantly revised the laboratories associated with the second semester introductory algebra-based physics course (Physics 2020). This work builds on prior efforts of each of the faculty members.

This project has:

• increased the number of laboratories associated with the course (from 6 to approximately 10-12)
• created guides for both faculty (course instructor) and teaching assistants (laboratory instructors)
• developed materials and mechanisms for assessing the effectiveness of these laboratories.

The need:

• Our labs have generally been perceived as not achieving the goals of supporting the course structure, interesting students, or developing their scientific skills;
• however we have no way of knowing without measuring student understanding and affective response
• At the same time the 14 lab / recitation sections that are offered in the 2020 sequence have had little /no organized guidance for the recitation portion of course

Our approach:

• Revise the labs according to principles and materials developed in physics education research community
• Increase the number of laboratories and eliminate the less productive recitation sections
• Establish tools to measure the effectiveness of our transformed courses.

The current work builds on previous efforts (warning this is a 4MB file) by Finkelstein and other members of the physics departments to revise the laboratories.