“Clickers” in the classroom. Dr. Douglas Duncan Director of Astronomical Laboratories University of Colorado, Boulder Former national Education Coordinator, American Astronomical Society

How many of you A.Have never used clickers? B.Have used clickers in one class? C.Have used clickers in more than one class?

How many of you primarily teach A.Science B.Social Science C.Humanities D.Primarily I do something else

Why use Clickers? What can you do with them? –Measure what students know before you start to teach them –Measure student attitudes –Find out if they’ve done assigned reading –Test student understanding –*Increase student’s retention of what you teach –*Facilitate discussion and peer teaching –*Transform the way you do any demonstrations –Increase class attendance –Improve student attitudes (!)

Use should depend on your goals. Be clear about them. Write them down. Post them. Discuss them with your students! (Less than 50% of faculty who teach introductory astronomy have….)

Introductory Astronomy Course Goals 1. Encourage awe, appreciation, and understanding for the topics investigated in modern astrophysics: –Origin of the universe, –Formation and evolution of the sun and the earth –Nature of space and time –The search for other planets and life in the universe. 2.Give students an understanding of the scientific method and practice in its use. –Critical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills. –Emphasis on the predicting/testing nature of science. –Practice interpreting data and deciding what to believe –Group communication skills. Useful outside of science class, and what employers want to hire! 3.Give the assistants and myself opportunities to improve our own teaching skills.

What do students say? - large study at UMass:

Lectures have been used for a long time… 2000 years ago Today

Teaching by telling is surprisingly ineffective - if you want students to master concepts.

We now know… For significant and lasting learning to take place, students minds must be active. The success of even an exemplary lecture is limited by the way students learn. If they are passive, the learning is usually less than you think.

A cautionary tale…. about a violin…. From Carl Weiman’s “Physics of Everyday Life” class.

(b) Only 10% of students gave the correct answer. Fifteen minutes later in the same lecture!

What else can you do? Ask conceptual questions Encourage students to debate their answers with each other, during class (Peer Teaching) Use “clickers” Have students predict before you do any demo, and write down if they were correct

Sample conceptual question: What happens to the spectrum in the front of the room if I put a red filter into the beam? a.Blue gets through, the other colors disappear b.Red gets through, the other colors disappear c.All the colors turn red d.It depends on which side of the prism I put the red filter

Roll a marble around a metal circle which has a gap in it. When the marble reaches “X” which path does it take?

Estimate your share of the national debt. The total debt is about $8.5 trillion. ($8.5 x ). You may assume everyone in the US has an equal share. a.$100 b.$1000 c.$ 5,000 d.$10,000 e.$30,000

How many liters of Scotch Whiskey are stored in warehouses in Scotland? Hints: 1 liter = 1 bottle. Scotch is aged 12 years before being sold. If its not from Scotland, it’s not Scotch. a) 300,000 b) 3 million c) 30 million d) 300 million e) 3 billion

This is more work for the students than just taking notes. It means they have to talk to the person next to them. Who may be an idiot. You must explain why you are using clickers, or students will not be happy!

Many students believe that learning means: You tell them, they take notes, they memorize what you said, they tell it back to you on a test. That’s all ! Understanding and applying concepts, explaining to others, etc. may not have been required of them. Studies show that students' epistemological expertise correlates with academic performance (Elby, 2001) [disconnected facts, or concepts?] Explain your expectations!

Final Warning! Student expectations are time- honored: If you want to interact, sit in front. If you want to interact a lot, sit in front and raise your hand. If you want to be anonymous, work on homework, read the paper, or sleep…sit in back. You’d better explain why you’re changing this!

How much difference does this make? Normalized gain = actual gain / possible e.g. started 40% correct, ended 55% = 15% actual gain / 60% possible gain = 0.25

Comparison of traditional lecture (red) vs interactive engagement (green) in intro physics. R. Hake Fraction of unknown concepts learned (FCI). 14 classes trad. 48 classes inter. engagement

Clicker “Watch outs” Broken clickers Bad registration! Cheating So… Explain why you are using them Start slowly – be easy on yourself Make them a serious part of the class

What if the whole class does better? Will you “normalize out” their gains?!

Addison Wesley -