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Scott A. Sinex Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering

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Presentation on theme: "Scott A. Sinex Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering"— Presentation transcript:

1 Investigating And Visualizing Measurement Error for Novice “STEM” Learners
Scott A. Sinex Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering Prince George’s Community College Largo, MD Presented at ASEE Conference 2015 in the Distinguished Lecture: Best PIC & Zone Papers held in Seattle, WA on June.

2 What about errors? as the expect as the novice
I only missed by a little!

3 Students… Faculty… Change the mindset of students
Calculate %error List some possible causes Propagation of error Change the mindset of students about how to think about errors Faculty… think like a novice and not an expert!

4 Developed four experiments…
ruler Stacking cookies Stacking nested Styrofoam cups balance Nuts & Bolts of extrapolation Nuts & Bolts of let’s make an error Now six experiments

5 Just add data and presto you get a model
Enter data Model (by linear regression) Best-fit line Simulation to manipulate a variable Predictions

6 First-semester general chemistry students
For the Stacking Cookies Experiment Q1 - Did you happen to notice that the rulers did not have the zero centimeter mark at the end? (all rulers had the zero mark off from the end) Yes No Q2 - If you did (circled yes to question above), did you correct for it? Be honest! Yes No Teachers in workshops Q1 & Q2 – 100% yes First-semester general chemistry students

7 …and what about ruler error?
Here we have induced a constant error

8 The pedagogical approach…
…so now we can extend concepts using simulations

9 …and students Are actively engaged Are using accessible technology
ASEE 2015 Conference …and students Are actively engaged Are using accessible technology Are involved in science process Must think Must develop an understanding of the model See many multivariable systems More interactive Excel spreadsheets, see

10 Questions and more info…
Scott Sinex See the paper in proceedings Contact me - My thanks to the ASEE best paper selection committee! This work was supported by the NSF Division of Materials Research Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) Grant Numbers DMR and DMR Thanks for coming today!!!


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