March, 2001
Ruxandra and I have recently surveyed students in our PHY110Y/PHY138Y Laboratory about their opinions regarding the lab. This document summarises the results.
466 students participated, which is a bit over one-half of the students enrolled in the laboratory. We threw out the results from the three students who were incapable of identifying which Physics course they were taking.
Question | Mean ± Standard Deviation | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Everything considered, give an overall rating of the
lab by choosing one of the following:
Comment: below we compare this result to a survey done three years ago. |
2.73 ± 0.86![]() |
|||||
Please compare the Physics lab with other labs you are
taking:
Comment: this result is disappointing |
3.0 ± 1.1![]() |
|||||
Are you learning enough from the lab?
|
2.52 ± 0.75 ![]() |
|||||
Do you think the free choice of experiments in the
second term is a better educational program than the lock-step that you had in
the first term?
|
1.82 ± 0.83![]() |
|||||
Does the lab demand too much time from you?
Comment: perfect! |
2.39 ± 0.72![]() |
|||||
Do you get adequate and prompt feedback on the quality
of your work?
|
2.21 ± 0.99![]() |
|||||
Do the marks you have received reflect the quality of
your work in the lab? In your opinion the marks you have been given are:
Comment: perfect! |
3.41 ± 0.70![]() |
|||||
Please rate your demonstrator in terms of his/her
teaching ability and help provided:
|
2.5 ± 1.2![]() |
In the Spring of 1998, a similar evaluation of the labs was performed. We shall compare the responses to the first question above, the overall rating, for this year's students with those of two years ago.
Physics Course | This Year | Spring 1998 |
---|---|---|
PHY110Y | 77% | 55% |
PHY138Y | 84% | 74% |
In addition to the multiple choice questions summarised above, we asked the students two related questions:
Virtually every experiment in the laboratory appeared as answers to both questions. We shall summarise the Core experiments first, which many more students have done, and then the Non-Core ones which are done by fewer students.
For the Core experiments, we only report on ones that have 10 or more "votes" as either the best or the worst experiment.
Experiment | Number Saying it Was the Best | Number Saying it Was the Worst |
---|---|---|
Free Fall | 94 | 29 |
DC Circuits I | 46 | 49 |
Lens Optics | 26 | 38 |
Boyle's Law | 31 | 43 |
Thermal Expansion | 41 | 22 |
Spectra | 34 | 44 |
Absolute Zero | 24 | 25 |
Heat Capacity | 17 | 25 |
Speed of Sound in a Solid | 11 | 18 |
Standing Waves | 2 | 35 |
Velocity of Sound in a Pure Gas | 9 | 15 |
The Hoop (true!) | 14 | NA |
The only Core experiment that clearly needs attention is Standing Waves.
For the Non-Core experiments, we only include ones that have 5 or more votes as best or worst.
Experiment | Number Saying it Was the Best | Number Saying it Was the Worst |
---|---|---|
Vapor Pressure | 6 | 6 |
Air Track | 5 | 14 |
Millikan Oil Drop | 6 | 2 |
Surface Tension | 11 | 8 |
e/m of Electron | 5 | 3 |
Physics of Music | 5 | 2 |
Except possibly the Air Track, it doesn't appear if any of these are in dire need of improvement.
The fact that virtually every experiment in the laboratory was named as the best by at least a few students argues in favor of the broad range of experiments that we offer.