Invention activities are Productive Failure activities in which students attempt (and often fail) to invent methods that capture deep properties of a construct before being taught expert solutions. The current study evaluates the effect of scaffolding on the invention processes and outcomes, given that students are not expected to succeed in their inquiry and that all students receive subsequent instruction.

Invention activities are Productive Failure activities in which students at- tempt to invent methods that capture deep properties of given data before being taught expert solutions. The current study evaluates the effect of scaffolding on the invention processes and outcomes, given that students are not expected to succeed in their inquiry and that all students receive subsequent instruction. Two Invention activities related to data analysis concepts were given to 130 undergraduate students in a first-year physics lab course using an interactive learning environment.

In most large universities, much of the undergraduate teaching responsibility falls on graduate student teaching assistants (TAs), who are by then experienced students, but relatively inexperienced instructors. Institutions have a responsibility to offer quality instruction to undergraduate students and thus are responsible for preparing the TAs to teach.

Invention and Productive Failure activities ask students to generate methods that capture the important properties of some given data (e. g., uncertainty) before being taught the expert solution. Invention and Productive Failure activities are a class of scientific inquiry activities in that students create, implement, and evaluate mathematical models based on data. Yet, lacking sufficient inquiry skills, students often do not actualize the full potential of these activities.

The detection sensitivities of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) instruments on the Mars Exploration Rovers for a wide range of elements were experimentally determined in 2002 using spectra of geochemical reference materials. A flight spare instrument was similarly calibrated, and the calibration exercise was then continued for this unit with an extended set of geochemical reference materials together with pure elements and simple chemical compounds.