Assessing Students' Understanding of Uncertainty in Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Courses at a Major Canadian University: Longitudinal Results and Misconceptions

Over the last five years, McGill University’s Office of Science Education (OSE) has collaborated with faculty members from the Department of Physics to form an education working group with the aim of charting the progression of students’ conceptual understanding of uncertainties across their undergraduate degree. The research conducted by this group seeks to provide further insight into both the experimental skill set that students gain through undergraduate laboratory courses and how the department could address noticeable gaps in student understanding. In this talk, we highlight the evaluation of conceptual understanding of uncertainty using the Concise Data Processing Assessment (CDPA) instrument. By characterizing the physics laboratory curriculum at McGill University, we assess the evolution of CDPA scores across multiple laboratory courses, proposing the utilization of this tool for identifying of gaps in student understanding. Analyzing the responses we investigate second-year courses to diagnose student misconceptions, and how they help tracing difficulties in experimental physics. We focus on data collected from students at the beginning and the end of their first full year of experimental laboratory courses. We find that there have been no changes in CDPA total scores throughout the COVID-19 pandemic; there is a general marked upward shift in student understanding as students move forward in the physics curriculum, however the results indicate that a significant portion of students continue to struggle with uncertainties, basic data analysis and curve fitting.