Computer-based laboratories versus traditional laboratories in physics education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of computer-based laboratories in physics education during a unit on Newton's Laws. The questions this study aimed at addressing were: Do computer-based labs increase student attitudes towards science more than traditional labs? and Do computer-based labs increase student understanding of physics concepts more than traditional labs? The study looked at 71 physics students in a public high school in California. They were primarily upper middle class Caucasians between 16 and 18 years old, with approximately equal numbers of male and female students. The method used was a quasi-experimental action research, which used percent differences between pre and post attitude surveys and content tests as data collection tools. The study found that students using computer-based labs had similar percent gains in content knowledge and similar attitudes to those using traditional labs. The data indicates that using computer-based labs to simply duplicate procedures of traditional labs does not increase student achievement. I believe computers must be used in labs to do things that cannot be done using traditional means in order for them to have a significant impact on student performance and attitudes. Key Words: computer-based laboratories, physics education, Newton's Laws labs, attitudes towards science, achievement in physic