Smartphone-based undergraduate research projects in an introductory mechanics course

At the University of Göttingen, we implemented undergraduate research projects into a first-year mechanics course for physics majors and teacher-training students. Our primary goal was to foster students’ affective factors and higher-order thinking skills in a self-directed, crosslinking, inquiry-based learning setting. A total of 160 students were organized into 40 small groups which worked on one of six open-ended experimental tasks, utilizing smartphone sensors for flexible first-hand data collection outside laboratories. The tasks originate from the Erasmus+ project DigiPhysLab and were significantly modified and opened to be used for undergraduate research projects. In this manuscript, we present the underlying rationales behind this program, outline the core concepts behind the developed experimental tasks, and explain the actual implementation. Additionally, we offer insights into the assessment process for the project work, including the evaluation of scientific posters and responses to eight reflection questions. To facilitate this, we have employed two rubrics to ensure a comprehensive evaluation process.