“Workshop Physics at Trinity College”
Brett Barwick
Motivation
After teaching introductory physics here at Trinity for several years in a traditional lecture style, I felt our students might enjoy and learn more in a “workshop” or “studio” style physics course. After investigating the Physics Education Research literature I found that there are a multitude of research backed techniques, many of which show greatly increased conceptual understanding by students. The pedagogy that we have settled on has been dubbed SCALE-UP physics, which stands for “Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-down Pedagogies”, and uses active student learning in a collaborative environment utilizing a lab/studio setting as opposed to a traditional lecture hall [1]. (http://www.ncsu.edu/PER/scaleup.html)
Which pedagogy is best for teaching introductory physics?
Physics education research over the last 25 years has made great progress in assessing which pedagogies work best in undergraduate physics courses. The way in which they have been able to quantitatively compare different course structures is by giving pre and post conceptual tests in hundreds of different intro physics courses over the years. By comparing how students do in post versus pre-tests, comparisons can be made between traditional lecture styled courses and more group oriented hands on pedagogies. The conclusion is that the students gain a better conceptual understanding of the physics when taught in the group oriented class structure [2]. Moreover, students in underrepresent groups in physics, including women and minorities are much less likely to fail in this course structure and their overall learning gains as measured using conceptual tests is much improved versus traditional lecture courses[1]. These results when presented to my colleagues in the physics department here at Trinity have lead us to the decision to adapt the SCALE-UP model of instruction for our Physics 131 Mechanics course starting in Fall 2014.
How SCALE-UP works
Traditional lecture/lab courses at the introductory physics level typically consist of three 1 hour lectures per week, with a 3 hour laboratory session once a week. In SCALE-UP the students attend three 2 hour sections per week which combine the lecture/lab together. On a typical day a student would come to class having already read from the textbook and completed an online reading assignment. During the 2 hour class student’s work in groups of three, with each group having a laptop for data collection, analysis, modeling. etc. Lecture is typically limited to only a small portion of the class time, being used primarily for summarizing physics concepts and motivation. Most of the class time is used in highly structured activities that include hands on activities that help the students discover and explore specific physics phenomena. Other activities include interesting questions that are designed to help students apply what they have learned in the hands-on activities. Students also take quizzes, tests and do homework as well as write lab reports, similar to what would be expected in a traditional course.
Classroom design
This teaching pedagogy requires a classroom in which students can sit together in groups of three, have space to complete hands on experiments and appropriate technologies to facilitate the learning of the physics. We have a dedicated teaching laboratory that we plan to renovate to match existing SCALE-UP classroom designs which will require:
– updated infrastructure: new electrical and internet wiring, removal of asbestos tiling, installation of carpeting
– new furnishings: large round tables, chairs, whiteboards to line the walls
– new computer-based technology: a computer projector, laptop computers, wall-mounted display screens, controlling software.
Our department already has an extensive collection of high quality undergraduate laboratory equipment that we plan to integrate into the course.
Physics Education Research has consistently shown that the pedagogies which are most effective are those which foster interactions between students in the classroom. We see the implementation of SCALE-UP as a way to integrate our already-successful notions of “community” and engagement into the classroom itself, in a way that will have a significant impact on students not only in our own department but in the larger Trinity science as well.
Robert Beichner, SCALE-UP classroom at NC State
References
[1] R. Beichner, in Research-Based Reform of University Physics (2007), Vol. 1, WWW Document, (http://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=4517&DocID=183).
[2] Richard R. Hake, American Journal of Physics — January 1998 — Volume 66, Issue 1, pp. 64, Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods: A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses