From: "JACK L. URETSKY (C) 1996; HEP DIV., ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB, ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@hep.anl.gov>
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 14:46:46 -0500 (CDT)
Hi all-
I"m now in my 6th week of teaching this course.
First off, I moved my class from a classroom into the physics lab.
I sit my students in groups of 2 or 3 at the lab tables. This has worked
well in getting some of the students talking to each other. You can tell
that it's working when they come in early or stay late explaining things
to each other.
The dean has been extremely supportive (a PhD in P Chem from
Purdue). He sat in during the second week. His comment: I wish they'd
taught me calculus this way.
I use the groups for discussing homework problems. I designate
a previously assigned problem (not handed in) and ask them to discuss it
and hold up the answer when they were in agreement. This is only beginning
to give satisfactory results, for reasons that will become apparent.
My homework is in two categories. (1) A daily assignment for
class discussion next day - not handed in; (2) A weekly assignment to be
handed in and graded. About 60% of the assigned work involves word problems.
The issues: students were simply declining to do the daily
homework. I instituted a zero tolerance of no homework policy a couple of
days ago. Students who didn't do the homework are asked to leave class so
as not to waste their own and everyone else's time. The policy seems to
be working with most students.
Algebra skills were expectedly poor. My solution, I hand out
a daily "minute paper" with an algebra exercise to be done in the last
5 minutes of class. There are also 2 questions to be answered: What
sticks in my mind? What question remains? These are great for communication.
Most importantly: Students read text ONLY to find examples that
they can copy. They are lost with problems that deviate from the textbook
examples. I am working with them on problem solving, but we'll see how
it goes.
A couple of weeks ago I asked them to memorize proofs of the
derivative theorems. No one did. The request was so unusual, apparently,
that nobody took it seriously. But we're getting there slowly with an
additional Wednesday 10 minute quiz at which they regurgitate one of the
proofs. Today's quiz seems to show that most students are "getting it."
I just think about my class as a mathematical "boot camp".
Regards,
Jack