Laboratory-tutorial activities for teaching probability

dc.creator	Roger E. Feeley
dc.creator	Jeffrey T. Morgan
dc.creator	Michael C. Wittmann
dc.date	2006-08-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:11:54Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:11:54Z
dc.identifier	1554-9178
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/ddc855525c4c4ecd9cf49b3bdff522df
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/14805
dc.description	We report on the development of students’ ideas of probability and probability density in a University of Maine laboratory-based general education physics course called Intuitive Quantum Physics. Students in the course are generally math phobic with unfavorable expectations about the nature of physics and their ability to do it. We describe a set of activities used to teach concepts of probability and probability density. Rudimentary knowledge of mechanics is needed for one activity, but otherwise the material requires no additional preparation. Extensions of the activities include relating probability density to potential energy graphs for certain “touchstone” examples. Students have difficulties learning the target concepts, such as comparing the ratio of time in a region to total time in all regions. Instead, they often focus on edge effects, pattern match to previously studied situations, reason about necessary but incomplete macroscopic elements of the system, use the gambler’s fallacy, and use expectations about ensemble results rather than expectation values to predict future events. We map the development of their thinking to provide examples of problems rather than evidence of a curriculum’s success.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	American Physical Society
dc.relation	http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v2/e020104
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178
dc.source	Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 2, Iss 2 (2006)
dc.subject	Math phobic
dc.subject	Target concepts
dc.subject	Intuitive Quantum Physics
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Laboratory-tutorial activities for teaching probability
dc.type	article