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Colleges Reinvent Classes to Keep More Students in Science
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
DEC. 26, 2014
DAVIS, Calif. - Hundreds of students fill the
seats, but the lecture hall stays quiet enough
for everyone to hear each cough and crumpling
piece of paper. The instructor speaks from a
podium for nearly the entire 80 minutes. Most
students take notes. Some scan the Internet. A
few doze.
In a nearby hall, an instructor, Catherine
Uvarov, peppers students with questions and
presses them to explain and expand on their
answers. Every few minutes, she has them solve
problems in small groups. Running up and down the
aisles, she sticks a microphone in front of a
startled face, looking for an answer. Students
dare not nod off or show up without doing the
reading.
Both are introductory chemistry classes at the
University of California campus here in Davis,
but they present a sharp contrast - the
traditional and orderly but dull versus the
experimental and engaging but noisy. Breaking
from practices that many educators say have
proved ineffectual, Dr. Uvarov's class is part of
an effort at a small but growing number of
colleges to transform the way science is taught.
...
The project here borrows elements from many
sources, including more than a decade of work at
the University of Colorado and other
institutions; software from the Open Learning
Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University; Carl E.
Wieman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist at
Stanford who founded Colorado's project and a
parallel effort at the University of British
Columbia; Eric Mazur, a Harvard physicist and
author of the book "Peer Instruction"; and Doug
Lemov, a former teacher and author of "Teach Like
a Champion."
Many of the ideas - like new uses of technology,
requiring students to work in groups and having
them do exercises in class rather than just
listen to the teacher - have caught on, to
varying degrees, in grade schools and high
schools. But higher education has been slower to
change, especially in giant courses with hundreds
of students.
...
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peace,
Jane
Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program
Box 871504, Dept.of Physics, ASU, Tempe, AZ 85287
480-965-8438/fax:965-7565 http://modeling.asu.edu
Jane.Jackson@asu.edu
For 24 years, Modeling Instruction has helped
teachers attain knowledge and skills needed to
benefit their students. Modeling Instruction is
designated as an Exemplary K-12 science program
by the U.S. Department of Education. The American
Physical Society recognized it with the 2014
Excellence in Physics Education Award.
The American Modeling Teachers Assn (AMTA) is
expanding the work:
http://modelinginstruction.org . AMTA is a
100Kin10 Partner.