Lesson Plan: Experimental Measurements Physics
This lesson plan includes the objectives and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to recognize types of experimental variables and understand how variables are used in performing experiments.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- define terms related to measurements used in experiments such as quantity, value, variable, constant, universal constant, independent variable, dependent variable, and (un)controlled variable,
- understand that a constant that is not a universal constant is effectively a controlled variable except that the experimenter did not actively control the variable and just measured it to ensure its constancy (or even just assumed its constancy),
- explain the purpose of experiments as tests of predictions,
- explain the usefulness of repeating or replicating experiments in identifying anomalous measurements.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- how predictions are generated before they are tested (theory),
- what sort of predictions are made (i.e., how predictions do or do not fit into existing paradigms),
- the quantitative treatment of measurement errors and uncertainties.