Assessments »Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments
Survey of Physics Reasoning on Uncertainty Concepts in Experiments (SPRUCE)

Developed by Michael Vignal, Gayle Geschwind, Marcos D. Caballero, Heather Lewandowski

Purpose To determine how students handle measurement uncertainty across ten different areas of this subject in intro to upper-level undergraduate physics laboratory courses.
Format Pre/post, Multiple-choice, Multiple-response, Short answer
Duration N/A min
Focus Lab skills (Measurement Uncertainty)
Level Upper-level, Intermediate, Intro college

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RESEARCH VALIDATION
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Silver Validation
This is the second highest level of research validation, corresponding to at least 5 of the validation categories below.

Research Validation Summary

Based on Research Into:

  • Student thinking

Studied Using:

  • Student interviews
  • Expert review
  • Appropriate statistical analysis

Research Conducted:

  • At multiple institutions
  • By multiple research groups
  • Peer-reviewed publication

SPRUCE was developed in a multi-stage process. First, instructor interviews were conducted to determine the areas of measurement uncertainty important to them. Next, the assessment was created and went through several rounds of iterations with beta testing and student interviews. Finally, a novel scoring scheme was developed. Research has detailed student understanding of comparing measurements with uncertainty, showing a difference in how they respond to two isomorphic questions with different representations.

References

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