The Role of the Laboratory in High School Physics

I\u27m sure many articles have been written on the role or use of the laboratory in high school physics. So many, in fact, that I\u27m not sure I can add much of anything that is really new and unique. In spite of the fact that during the last 10 to 12 years we\u27ve become very much aware of writing objectives (behavioral type), we\u27ve probably not given much thought to objectives of the lab. In some cases we come to a certain place in the book and it\u27s time to do a lab; so we do it without much thought as to why. Probably, and more specifically, we think about the objectives or reasons for doing a lab experiment and evaluate whether or not it\u27s worth including as a part of the course work