SURROGATE LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS: INTERACTIVE COMPUTER/VIDEODISC LESSONS AND THEIR EFFECT ON STUDENTS' UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE

The purpose of this research was the comparison of interactive videodisc instruction with standard laboratory instruction in a college leve physics course. Forty-nine students enrolled in physics at George Mason University took part in the study. Twenty-two students formed the experimental group and performed the interactive videodisc laboratory "The Puzzle of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse". The videodisc laboratory was enhanced by the investigator to make it a computer controlled, Level Three videodisc lesson. Twenty-seven students formed the control group and performed a traditional laboratory on the physics of standing waves on strings. The criterion instruments were an investigator-constructed content pre and post-test, the Schwirian Science Support Scale forms A and B, subjects' laboratory Data Tables, and Computer Recorded Data Tables. Using analysis of covariance, no statistically significant difference was found in the performance of the two groups on the Physics Content test. An analysis of variance on the Laboratory Data Tables and the Computer Recorded Data Tables showed that the two groups separated and controlled variables in significantly (p < .001) different ways. A chi-square test (p < .0005) on the Computer Recorded Data Tables showed the students in the experimental group were selecting variables in terms of symmetric patterns on the video monitor rather than separating and controlling the variables of the videodisc laboratory. Data is presented that indicates the success of the traditional laboratory group in the task of separation and control of variables was due primarily to the physical structure of the equipment, not to their ability to separate and control variables. A series of interactive videodisc design principles is synthesized from the results of the study.