This paper is the third in a series of three describing a controlled study “Transfer of scientific abilities”. The study was conducted in a large-enrollment introductory physics course taught via Investigative Science Learning Environment. Its goal was to find whether designing their own experiments in labs affects students’ approaches to experimental problem solving in new areas of physics and in biology and their learning of physics concepts. The part of the project presented in this paper involves students in the experimental and control groups solving a biology-related problem that required designing an experiment and evaluating the findings. We found that students who were in the sections where they had to design their own experiments during the semester were able to transfer the abilities they acquired in physics laboratories to solve a novel biology problem. The project was supported by NSF grant DRL 0241078.
Article
From Physics to Biology: Helping Students Attain All-Terrain Knowledge.
USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2007
Disciplines
Abstract
Language
en_US
Publisher
American Institute of Physics
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0
Citation Information
Ruibal-Villasenor, M., Etkina, E., Karelina, A., Rosengrant, D., & Van Heuvelen, A. (2007). From Physics to Biology: Helping Students Attain All-Terrain Knowledge. 2007 Physics Education Research Conference, Greensboro NC. AIP Conference Proceedings 951, 96-99, doi:10.1063/1.2820957
Citation only. Preprint version of the article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.