Elizabeth (Beth) Eschenbach, Ph.D. SET Visiting Scholar and Senior Lecturer Professor of Environmental Resources Engineering at Humboldt State University

have a better idea of what JiTT is understand how others use JiTT in their courses have new ideas of how to apply JiTT to their own courses

Please take a minute the identify a concept that is hard for your students to grasp.

Out of Class JiTT Exercises In Class JiTT Responses & Classroom Activities

Scott Simkins, Professor of Economics at North Carolina A&T

Collaborator Acknowledgement: Professor Eileen Cashman, HSU

9 You have just been served a scoop of macaroni and cheese on a plate. The food is too hot to eat. What would you do to cool your mac-n-cheese via Conduction? Convection? Radiation?

“Using conduction, I would let the macaroni transfer its heat through the plate it was on, making the Mac cooler and the plate hot.” “Using convection, I would sit over my plate and blow on the macaroni, using the air flow I create with my breath to cool the macaroni.” 10

11 “I don't understand how radiation would work here, I just can't get a good enough explanation from the book so that I can relay the information. I get something (sic) about energy transfer through electromagnetic waves, so does that maybe mean that if I were to stick the plate in front of the TV, the waves from the TV would cool the macaroni? I just don't quite get it.”

12 “To cool the food using conduction I would separate (sic) the macaroni and cheese so that the noodles can be more distant. That way, the denominator from equation 3-50 will increase, causing the fraction to lower in value. To cool the food using convection I would stir the macaroni and cheese and I would blow on it. To cool the food using radiation I would increase the surface area.”

“To cool the food via radiation I would just let it sit there and allow the heat to radiate from the high energy state of the food to the low energy state of the sourounding (sic) atmosphere. You can almost see the waves in the rising steam, and now I’m hungury (sic) and have to go.” 13

14 Students love seeing their responses on the board and often nudge their friends and point.

Students learn more than in a traditional lecture course. Students are retained and pass at higher rates. Students are more prepared, motivated and engaged. Students learn how to learn better and further develop metacognition skills.

Students are more prepared for class as they are more motivated to prepare and the JiTT activities have them spend more time on task. Students learn more in class because they come more ready to interact with material and each other. They get quick feedback on their ways of thinking about the material relative to their peers. Students’ misconceptions can be known and challenged in class. Students learn how to learn as they learn to identify what they know as well as what they don’t know (metacognitive skills). JiTT activites can have students transfer knowledge to new domain as well ask link it to prior knowledge and real world issues.

Instructors can see how students think before the exam and then design learning activities to promote better understanding before the exam. Instructors can use a little or a lot of JiTT with current teaching approaches. Instructors are more efficient in content coverage. Teaching is fun with engaged and prepared students. Students love to see their work used in class and find the immediacy engaging.

This website (The Science Education Resources Center at Carleton College ) can be very helpful:

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