Control of Variables Strategy Across Phases of Inquiry in Virtual Labs

Control of Variables Strategy (CVS) is the process of isolating the effect of single variables when conducting scientific inquiry. We assess how CVS can help student achieve different levels of understanding when implemented in different parts of the inquiry process. 148 students worked with minimally-guided inquiry activities using virtual labs on two different physics topics. The virtual labs allowed for exploration, data collection, and graphical analysis. Using student log data, we identified how CVS manifests itself through these phases of students’ inquiry process. We found that students using CVS during data collection and plotting was associated with students achieving more qualitative and quantitative models, respectively. This did not hold, however, for more complicated mathematical relationships, emphasizing the importance of mathematical and graphical interpretation skills when doing CVS.

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