The effect of real‐time laboratory graphing on learning graphic representations of distance and velocity

Abstract Extended Microcomputer‐Based Laboratory (MBL) experience has been shown to be effective in improving middle‐school students' graphing skills. This study reports evidence that a treatment period as short as a single class period with a motion MBL unit was sufficient for high school physics students to improve their comprehension of distance and velocity graphs when compared with a pencil‐and‐paper graph‐construction control treatment. Most of the improvement appears to be attributable to the real‐time graphing feature of the MBL. A delay of only 20–30 seconds in displaying the graphed data inhibited nearly all of the learning.