Here at the Shenandoah Valley Governor's School in Virginia we
are under a mandate from the Commonwealth to limit class (and lab)
ratios to 15 students to 1 instructor. (we are allegedly funded to make
this happen but Physics is a very popular class here.) This was never
really done until this year. Previous class sizes were typically 24 to
1. This year after being chastised under our last review, we lowered
the ratio to 16/1 by hiring an additional part-time instructor. This
meant that we went away from our previous three person lab groups to two
person lab groups. I must say that there has been a marked improvement
in the quantity and quality of work from the lab sections this year. A
single data point, perhaps, but still a suggestive one.
When I do not have enough equipment for everyone to have access,
I run concurrent labs and rotate groups in succeeding periods. For
example, if four groups are using the projectile launchers, then four
other groups will be using the air tracks. Next week, the groups
switch. It means more work for me but it means that everyone gets to
use the equipment fairly.
THO
Thomas O'Neill
Physics
Shenandoah Valley Governor's School
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Edmiston [mailto:edmiston@BLUFFTON.EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 6:45 PM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: Maximum Physics Lab Enrollment
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