The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) is a pedagogical approach that aims to engage students in the process of scientific argumentation (Rudd, Greenbowe, & Hand, 2001). Unfortunately, past studies fail to address what students gain by doing a SWH specific pre-lab. As a consequence, this project aims to fill the gap in the literature and investigate how students believe pre-labs prepare them for a lab in SWH lab format. This study examined students’ perceived gains from their pre-lab assignments and how they used these gains throughout the course of lab. Specifically: 1) How do students utilize SWH formatted pre-labs to prepare for their laboratory experiments? and 2) How does the quality of these pre-labs affect student preparation over the course of the semester? Pre-lab assignments were collect at 3 points throughout the semester and scored by researchers. The results yielded no significant improvement over the course of the semester. This implies that the pre-lab score may be more correlated to the content of the experiment rather than the point in the semester that they were performed. Interviews were also conducted at the beginning and end of the semester, analyzed and then compared to the pre-lab scores. This second phase of analysis examines students’ perceptions of their pre-labs, in-lab actions, and post lab takeaways and how those might relate to the pre-lab scores earned. Student perceptions of usefulness and time spent on the pre-lab assignment were specific areas of focus.

Science writing heuristic pre-lab performance compared to perceived usefulness

255th National Meeting (2018)

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