In a technology driven world,students must understand how science and mathematical concepts apply to real-world problems; brainstorm ideas, iterate, evaluate ideas; reflect on their thinking; and base their statements on scientific principles. Considering the recommendations of reform documents such as NGSS to provide an instructional context to bridge Engineering Design with Science Thinking, we have reformed the laboratory component of a calculus-based course for engineers. We intend to compare the patterns of thinking and reasoning during group discussions in two laboratory-based multi-week ED tasks, one of which was instructor-assigned and the other student-selected. The audio recordings of the discussions within 14 groups of students for which the author was the TA will be transcribed, analyzed and coded. The results of our study will suggest ways to enhance the Design Science connection, in introductory calculus-based physics courses. 

This study is a topic analysis of student essays written in an introductory physics laboratory. It was conducted at a large American mid-western university, in a physics course with over 2,000 students enrolled annually. The course content centered around three fundamental principles of mechanics: momentum, energy, and angular momentum. The labs constituted one fifth of the total grade. In the last five weeks of the course, students completed a multi-week lab assignment: to write an essay about a real-world problem in mechanics. They were given agency over the type of the problem: as long as it involved one of the listed principles. Given the diversity of student responses, we analyzed the text of 600+ essays using machine learning to find the topics which are common to many of them.

Working on homework questions with a collaborative partner, or “study buddy,” is usually not prohibited by an instructor and is sometimes even openly encouraged. We aim to quantify the effect of collaborative homework problem solving on student’s behavior and final course grade. The large-enrollment introductory physics course studied deploys homework sets online. The online homework website stores an enormous amount of information about student activity and this metadata is ripe for analysis. We focus on the timestamps for homework answer submissions. By correlating the time that answers were submitted for each unique pair of students, a probability can be assigned that a particular pair were study buddies. With the study buddies identified, fast Fourier transforms are used to compare the regularity of homework interaction of study buddies and students working alone. Auto-correlations are also performed on each student’s submission time data and the auto-correlation coefficients are correlated to exam scores [1] for both study buddies and solo workers. Our findings indicate no substantial difference in regularity of course access or course grade between study buddies and solo workers.

1. G. Kortermyer, J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 25, 697 (2016)

Dual Process Theories of Reasoning (DPTs) suggest that humans reason using System 1 (heuristic) and System 2 (analytic) thinking processes. When faced with a task, System 1 automatically engages to generate an initial model. System 2 may or may not be engaged to evaluate that model.  The provisional model generated by System 1 may be inappropriate, and System 2, if activated, may not successfully override that model.  Thus, the reasoner might not arrive at the correct conclusion, even when the necessary content knowledge and skills are available. This phenomenon can explain student inconsistencies in response to similar physics questions. Student responses to sets of related questions that elicit contradictory responses will be discussed, along with scores on the cognitive reflection test (CRT) [1].