Small-group activities have been adopted widely in science and engineering classrooms. Research on collaborative learning has showed that some groups are more productive (in terms of meeting the learning goals of the program) than others, even if all the groups are taught by the same instructor, and are engaging in the same tasks. To be productive, groups must be regulated. Group regulation is...
We will demonstrate how we use the MathMatize website both for in-class polls and post-class quizzes in several first- and second-year large physics classes. MathMatize is a relatively new system which supports fill-in-the-blank style questions where students input equations, and the system is very good at recognizing equivalent answers. We find that this system works much better than multiple...
Labatorials (combination of “lab” and “tutorial”) developed at the University of Calgary were inspired by the introductory physics tutorial system entitled ‘Tutorials in Introductory Physics’ at the University of Washington. Students doing Labatorials typically use worksheets with several suitable activities for the duration of the lab session. The worksheets ask students to run calculations,...
In this talk, we will present a mastery-based approach to introductory physics assignments (i.e., homework), and the results of a study comparing this mastery-based method to a standard online (large publisher) assignment software. We then will discuss the implementation of this method to a large enrolment introductory physics course. In the past decades, introductory physics courses at...
At Simon Fraser University, PHYS 100 is a large introductory physics course designed for students who have not taken Physics 12 (or its equivalent). Since Physics 12 is a prerequisite for the university-level physics courses required in many physical and life sciences programs, PHYS 100 serves as a crucial stepping stone for some students pursuing these fields. However, many students entering...
