Measurement Lab

The measurement lab teaches new students about how every measurement is imperfect, and carries error & uncertainty.

To do this, we measure the same thing (flow rate down a pipe) using 4 different methods.

Students get into the flow of the activity, taking measurements, recording them ...taking more measurements, recording them...

But there's a twist!

One of the measuring devices (the orifice plate) has been deliberately sabotaged without telling the students.

By doing this, when students look at their results they spot a problem. The Orifice Plate gives a wildly different answer to the rest.

This causes the students to check through their methodology and really think about what they have done - in order to figure out what happened.

By doing so they reiterate the key concepts of the lab, rather than glazing over them.

(p.s... the students were given incorrect calibration info for the Orifice Plate)