From: Paul Doherty (pauld@exploratorium.edu)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 08:45:23 PST
Message-Id: <l0311072bba829f03d388@[192.168.111.161]> Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 08:45:23 -0800 From: Paul Doherty <pauld@exploratorium.edu> Subject: demo suggestions
Hi pinholers
At TI we believe in having students do hands-on explorations as often as
possible. However sometimes a demonstration of the physics phenomena is the
right way to go.
Dick Berg is the recognized "Master of the Physics Demo" in the United States.
here are some of his thoughts on getting the most from an in class physiccs
demo.
Paul Doherty
"I would like to make a couple of comments regarding quality use of
demonstrations.
As some of you know, research in physics education has come into its own
as a generally recognized area of physics research in the past ten years,
and several major universities as well as a number of smaller colleges
are now involved in this venture.
One of the interesting things that they have discovered regards how to use
demonstrations in the most effective manner. I thnk that summarizing an
effective technique would be as follows:
1. Show the demonstration to the class and let them see what it would do
if it were operated.
2. Propose an experiment, and describe, or let the class come up with the
various possible results. This might even be done by allowing them to
think about it from one class meeting to the next.
3. Let the class members vote on what they think the outcome of the
experiment might be. This is a nice place to use the PRS devices (Personal
response System) that
have become popular as of late. A cheap alternative is lettered or
numbered cards that the students can hold up.
4. Then let them discuss the question among themselves to see if their
individual logic can stand up to the scrutiny of others.
5. Have another vote, to see how many of the students were able to change
each others' convictions.
6. Perform the experiment, so that every individual can see how his or her
ideas conform with actual experimental results.
7. Discuss the experiment further so that each student is forced to
confront the errors in his or her physical concepts - and to ultimately
adjust their thinking to conform to reality.
It turns out that using this general procedure has several very
interesting results. The students actually seem to learn more physics
and it appears to stay with them longer and mean more. They remember the
experimental results of the demonstration properly. When they are simply
shown the demonstrations in the process of a lecture, about one year
later many students actually remember incorrect results, even though they
actually saw the demonstration properly performed in class.
If you would like to see some of the type of questions that the professors
ask here, see our Question of the Week web site:
http://www.physics.umd.edu/lecdem/outreach/QOTW/active/questions.htm
An excellent reference is the book "Peer Instruction" by Eric Mazur.
For those of us involved in preparing demonstrations for teachers, this is
an excellent opportunity to use our materials to really help the teaching
and learning process.
Best wishes,
Dick Berg"
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