Abstract— Pure BSc and engineering students at University of

Johannesburg undertake a standard calculus based physics course as

an introduction to their degree major. Each module in a semester has

a practical component that need to be passed. Failure to attain 50%

pass mark in practical component makes it impossible for a student to

seat for exam and this renders the students ineligible to embark upon

the course for their major and postgraduate studies. Most of repeating

students do not register for this component of the practical, as a result

some fail the module for the second time. This paper presents the

advantage to pass a module if good practical marks are attained and

the possibility of failing the module for the second time if exemption

from taking practical component option is taken.

Keywords— Mainstream degree, Physics practical, Exemption

from practical, Laboratory (Lab) experiment.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE first year university experience has mostly been a

challenge for most students enrolling for their first year

degree for the first time and the repeating students too.

The research investigations over the years in academic success

and persistence with the Pure BSc and engineering programs

has been identified and linked to a declining interest in

engineering amongst graduating high school students and low

completion rates by students entering universities as

engineering majors. Besterfield-Scare et al (1997), has seen

the first year as critical for both academic and retention of

Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) students. This

has been widely observed within South Africa Universities. At

University of Johannesburg (UJ) were this study is undertaken,

choosing physics lab experiment/practical component has been

a challenge for students repeating the module. Mostly, their

challenge is the timetable clashes with their second year

module. As the result some students apply for exemption from

performing the practical/ laboratory experiments. It must be

mentioned that their previous year’s practical mark does not

count towards their final semester mark (Contribution of all

the assessment marks obtained by a student in one semester.

This mark is comprised of all assessments undertaken in a

semester, that is, the combination of class tests, tutorial tests,

Paul Molefe is with University of Johannesburg, Physics Department, P.O.

Box 524, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2006. (corresponding

author phone: +27 11 559 2327; fax +27 86 2739182 ; e-mail:

pmolefe@uj.ac.za).

Buyisiwe Sondezi is with University of Johannesburg, Physics

Department, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa,

2006. e-mail: bmsondezi@uj.ac.za.

home-works and practical mark or without practical mark if

not chosen by a repeater.). The first time first year students

have the practical/laboratory component as a must to register.

The laboratory experiment is a bridge between theory and

practical skills; it offers unique opportunity to assist students

to construct an understanding of these connections. To

discover in a real setting and on their own some of the physics

laws that they will learn in lectures per semester; be exposed to

the work of an experimental physicist, and learn about general

experimental procedures, so as to take data accurately and to

“troubleshoot” (ascertain what are the possible problems);

interpret data and report their “discoveries” (i.e., results) in a

clear, concise and understandable way. Students do lab

experiment/practical on one of the week days designated for

lab session(s). Practical sessions are not every week, as the lab

sessions alternate with tutorial sessions for every student. In

total, students are expected to perform 4 experiments and 1

practical test in each semester.

These students register for PHY1A01, a calculus based 24-

credit bearing physics module in the first semester. The

learning units in this module are: motion in one and two

dimensions, Newton’s Laws, work and energy, momentum,

rotation of rigid bodies, elasticity, fluid mechanics, periodic

motion, mechanical waves, sound, temperature and heat, and

the thermal properties of matter. For semester 2 students

register for PHY1B01 and the focus is on electricity/electrical-

circuits experiments and optics and waves experiments. In this

module(s) the students also learn to derive some of the

equation and subsequently use them in their problem solving.

They’ll get to do advanced electromagnetism experiments in a

second year physics course, if they progress to that route.

The findings of studies show that it is not the amount of

practical work that is important, but the quality of the

experience that is a good preparation for university

(Ramnarain & Molefe, 2012). According to Minstrell (1993)

students benefit when there is sufficient time to reflect on their

laboratory experiences, laboratory findings, and teacher

explanations. In this study we follow up on the performance of

the students who registered and not registered for physics

practical component of their first year module(s) at UJ with

more consideration to the second semester.

How are the practical marks calculated?

Experiments: Students do 4 experiments/practical(s), for

which the reports are marked. There are different combinations

of experiments students can perform in the lab, e.g. (LMOP;

MOPQ; OPLQ, PQLM, etc.). The average mark for these

contributes 70% towards the practical mark. During the last

few weeks of the semester, students write a (60 min -90 min)

Exemption From Practical(S) In First Year: Is

It A Good Idea?

P. Molefe1, B. M Sondezi

T

4th International Conference on Mechanical, Electronics and Mechatronics Engineering (ICMEME'2015) Dec. 15-16, 2015 Pattaya (Thailand)

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test. They perform an experiment for the test, analyse data and

report results – all of this done independently. The practical

test mark contributes 30% towards the practical mark. The

practical mark is later combined with the theory mark

(semester tests, assignments, etc.) to determine the semester

mark. Finally, the semester mark is combined with the exam

TABLE I

BELOW SHOWS SOME OF EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED BY STUDENTS IN THE

SECOND SEMESTER. EXP NAME COMMENTS

L NEWTON’S RINGS Optics/waves

M EXPONENTIAL

FUNCTIONS

(discharging capacitor)

Electricity/electronics

N e/m OF AN ELECTRON Electromagnetism

O INDEX OF

REFRACTION (PRISM)

Optics

P METER BRIDGE AND

POTENTIOMETER

Electrical circuits

Q RESISTANCE AND

RESISTIVITY

Electricity / circuits

Test PRAC TEST Hands on , done

independently

mark (50/50) to give the student the average module mark

(Final mark obtained after the contribution of the

semester mark and the exam mark.). It is important to

mentioned that students performing experiments need at least a

50% overall mark in practicals to gain entry to the final exam

and repeating students opted not do practicals need to get more

than 40% of their theory mark to seat for exam .

Module Pass Rate: This is the percentage obtained by

considering the number of students who participated in a given

examination. The total number of students passing the exam

over the number of students allowed to write the exam gives a

pass rate of that particular group.

Throughput: This is the percentage of the number of students

who passed the module over the total number of students who

enrolled for the course at the beginning of the year.

II. METHODOLOGY

The performance of the students was looked at with

reference to participating in lab experiment, exempted from

lab experiment and importance of performing lab experiments

towards the semester mark and passing the module. Data used

in this study is collected in these academic years 2008 - 2011

for semesters 2 of the first year physics modules. The final

marks/results of respective students in the above categories

were analysed and reported.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The table 2 shows student 1 to student 4 that were doing

laboratory experiments and passed the module with good final

marks. There first three students had good theory mark

complimented by good practical mark and made them to pass

comfortably. It is important to notice that they did well in the

exam too. Student 5 and student 6 just passed the module, but

looking at their final mark closely it shows that the practical

mark helped them to pass the module. Their theory and exam

marks are not above 50% but due to the semester mark

boosted by the practical mark they managed to pass the

module. Students 7 to 9 had good practical mark above 60%

but failed the module; their failure is attributed to bad exam

mark obtained. Their semester marks compared well with

students 4 to 6 but their exam marks are below subminimum of

40%.

TABLE II

SHOWS SAMPLE OF MARKS OF STUDENTS DOING THE LABORATORY

EXPERIMENTS Student Prac marks % Theory Mark %

Semester mark % Exam Mark % Final Mark % Q/NQ Pass/Fail

1 70 80 77 73 75 Q P

2 79 63 68 62 65 Q P

3 77 84.8 82 70 76 Q P

4 70 50.1 56 44 50 Q P

5 78 42 53 48 51 Q P

6 58 46 50 50 50 Q P

7 68 38 47 29 38 Q F

8 77 47 56 33 20 Q F

9 68 55.4 59 35 35 Q F

From the mark sheet of student in 2008, 191 students

registered for the second year module and 30% of them opted

to take exemption option. Almost 10% of the students opted

for exemption did not qualify to seat for exam and 45% failed

the exam as the result they failed the module. Similar pattern

was noticed in the other years where students opted for

exemption from laboratory experiments. In 2009, 20% of the

students opted not to take laboratory experiments with 5% of

them not qualified to seat for the exam, while 44% of these

students failed the module. The 2010 cohort had 14%, less

than the previous two year of students opting for exemption

from the laboratory experiment. As the results, we notice that

21% of these students failed to the exam and 29% did not

qualify to seat for the exam. Lastly, in 2011 about 18% that

opted for exemption qualifying to seat for the exam, but 29%

of them failed the exam.

TABLE III

SHOWS SAMPLE OF MARKS OF STUDENTS OPTED FOR LABORATORY

EXPERIMENTS EXEMPTION. S tude nt P ra c ma rks % The ory Ma rk %

S e me ste r ma rk

%Exa m Ma rk % Fina l Ma rk % Q/NQ P a ss /Fa il

1 Exe mpt 49.8 50 43 47 Q F

2 Exe mpt 54 40 40 47 Q F

3 Exe mpt 47 47 36 42 Q F

4 Exe mpt 54 54 32 43 Q F

5 Exe mpt 41 41 29 35 Q F

6 Exe mpt 31 31 N NQ F

7 Exe mpt 36 36 N NQ F

8 Exe mpt 49 49 50 50 Q P

9 Exe mpt 48 48 53 51 Q P

10 Exe mpt 55 55 55 55 Q P

11 Exe mpt 61 61 58 60 Q P

The table 3 above shows different students marks that led to

some students failing to seat for exam or failing the module

after they opted for the exemption from laboratory

experiments. In the four years that we studied exemption from

laboratory experiments, we noticed that most students took the

wrong option. Since they are repeating the module the

assumption is that their theory is not that good for them to not

choose to do the labs. It is important to mention that three

possible reason for opting out, are not being informed of the

4th International Conference on Mechanical, Electronics and Mechatronics Engineering (ICMEME'2015) Dec. 15-16, 2015 Pattaya (Thailand)

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consequence of not take the laboratory experiments or

avoiding to spend 3 to 4 hours in the lab every second week or

having clashes with their second year modules.

IV. CONCLUSION

Student non-completion of the first year physics module

for repeating students is attributed to not taking the laboratory

experiments. Negative experiences at the physics department

at UJ which influence students withdraw from the laboratory

experiment need to be addressed as a matter of priority. Since

almost above 45% of the students opting not to do the labs are

failing the module. We recommend that students without

second year module clashes to all take the laboratory

experiments as part of the holistic module.

The researchers intend to study the exemption from

laboratory session throughout the levels of physics

undergraduate and other departments within the university.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the assistance from the

department of physics at UJ.

REFERENCES

[1] Besterfield-Scare, M., Atma, C.J & Shuman, L.J. (1997). Charecteristics

of freshma engineering students: Models for determining student

attrition and success in engineering.Journal of Engineering Education,

86, 139-149.

[2] Ramnarain, U. & Molefe, P. (2012). The readiness of high school

students to pursue first year physcis. Africa Education Review, Vol 9 (1)

, 142.

[3] Minstrell, J. A. (1993). Teaching science for understanding. In M. K

Pearsall (ED.). Relevent research. Washington D. C. National Science

teachers Association , 237 - 251.

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