Benefiting from Features of Antique Experiments in order to Elicit Causes of Experimental Error in Outdoor Setting

Abstract

Area Elective 2 is a multiple setting physics course for prospec-

tive physics teachers including residential outdoor activities in nature. One of

the purposes of the course is to organize a guideline for the classroom envi-

ronment through life experiences in nature and discovering the problems which

nature imposes. The topic of the research is based on an experiment within

the scope of features of antique experiments. Because of the students' rst en-

counter with such type of an activity, the researchers gave some hints in order

to set up the experiment. The participating six students recorded the change

of shadow lengths of a stick during a day time to calculate angular speed of

the Earth. Then a voluntary student was interviewed. The results show that

inquiries on this one-day experiment are enriching factors in studying the causes

of experimental errors in outdoor setting.