Experimental problem solving: a plausible approach for conventional laboratory courses

Almost every student is expected to work on a collection of experimental setups to get the desired ‘hands-on’ experience with physical systems during the conventional laboratory courses offered at colleges and universities the world over. In a number of conventional laboratory courses, the ‘minds on’ aspects and related cognitive abilities are not given their due importance, probably for a variety of valid reasons and constraints. This affects the overall learning and development of various capabilities that seems to be achievable through laboratory courses. As a plausible alternative to the traditional method of instruction, ‘experimental problem solving’ approach developed and implemented for the physics laboratory courses by the author is presented here. In this approach, students are given ‘experimental problems’ and encouraged to think and decide on several aspects and thereby perform self-guided experimental work with minimal help from the instructor. For this, each conventional experiment is presented as an experimental problem. The experimental problem solving approach thus integrates and fosters conceptual understanding, procedural understanding, experimental skills, cognitive processes, and overall problem solving ability. In this paper, the author presents details of the experimental problem solving approach and illustrates the approach with two sample experimental problems.