I responded to you off list after your previous message, and much of
this is the same. ...I appologize, but I wanted to join in this
discussion.
I have had small classes in my calc based physics course since day one.
By small I mean 3 to 14 students. Classes are even smaller,
particularly when the second semester rolls around. When the class size
is near the handfull level, teaching can be particularly frustrating.
You will find the same characteristics present in your small classes as
in your large. You will have students who are always prepared, sometimes
prepared, and those who are last minute crammers. Which mix you have
will greatly affect how much small group activity you can do. I have had
discussions with my VP who thought this was wonderful, while I have
often found classes of 3 to be extremely tough to teach. It depends on
the students, and sometimes you really have to crack a whip.
I would suggest you prepare your curriculum based on your average class
size, and then just tweak it for smaller classes. While you only have 3
students, these three may be expecting a rather standard course. It
might be that is how they learn best. Be careful about forcing another
model on them.
Some tweaks I would be suggest might be shorter exams but on a more
frequent basis. Be ready to work lots of problems, even if the students
arent asking questions. They might not be there yet, etc. There will be
some peer pressure so they might get shy on you. Send them to the board,
but be careful about wasting time when they arent prepared, dont be
afraid to step in. Assign a few more problems than normal, and make them
team assignments. Let the students know you are also part of the team!
Two year college students typically are very motivated, and usually
older and hopefully more mature than typical university students
(although this demographic varies from region to region.) I find that
my students are motivated, but often have serious outside class
constraints like military, family, job, etc. They very well may only
have the weekend to prepare for class. They may have several week
stretches where little time is available outside of class, followed by
stretches where they create an abundant amount by taking off work etc.
to catch back up. If you are working presentations in to your course you
might want to consider this.
You also should take into consideration that these are introductory
students, they may not have had much experience in self directed
learning. In that case, your not only helping them learn physics, but
are helping them develope this skill as well. .. something you may need
to take into account in your assessment.
I generally try several things to engage the students and have grown to
lecture less and less. Things like ranking task excercieses(Maloney,
Hiegellke, OKuma), interactive lecture demo's (Thorton and Sokoloff) ,
as well as traditional demos. Since I have very little to no support in
setting up demo's, and since I have to roll into a classroom immediately
after another instructor rolls out (most of the time), I have utilized
Cinema Classics, and other laser disk material to supplement the demos.
In many situations this allows you do go into the analysis in far
greater detail because of the frame by frame stepping capability. I
also like to show different programs from the mechanical universe
series, as well as assign watching programs along with a written
assignment. There are many other kinds of materials I have found very
useful, the Active Physiscs workbooks of Van Huevlen. I also have tried
to get as much resource material into the library as possible.
Interactive Physics (Schwartz), Schaum's outlines, Physics made easy,
etc.
Another excellent set of materials is the ICP21 materials developed by
Alex Dickison. It is not calculus based, but I have used it in a
calculus based setting. It is not hard to supplement this material with
a few mini lectures, and a good set of calc based problems to assign. It
is very constructive based, very hands on, with a well defined learning
cycle built in. After a few weeks the students generally seem to like
it. You will need to integrate this with your lab time however to be
truly effective. I am sure Alex would be happy to send you an example of
the materials. They have devloped modules for a full year now (I
believe?).
Finally, your students will be typical students. They ultimately will be
responsible for their success. More than likely it wont matter
tremendously what you do as long as you put forth your best effort.
Relax, have fun and enjoy!
Bill Waggoner
-----Original Message-----
From: Tina Fanetti
Sent: Tue 8/28/2001 8:29 AM
To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
Cc:
Subject: Teaching 3 Students
Hello
I have 3 students in my General Physics Class. I see this as a
uniqu=
e opportunity to really impact them with physics. But I am not
sure =
exactly what to do. I don't want to lecture like normal. Idea?
Thanks
Tina=20
Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429