1. Framing the Active Learning Classroom
Clicker Questions
To motivate students to engage in active learning

2. About this project
This is one items in a set of materials is compiled for instructors to draw upon in order to frame non-traditional modes of classroom teaching. Our hope is that these materials can enhance student enthusiasm for and reduce student resistance to such techniques, thus improving the experience of instructors and students and supporting student learning. These materials are not research-tested; rather, they represent the wisdom and experience of practitioners who are using research-based instructional techniques. These materials have been shared by members of the science education community, primarily in physics. If you re-use these materials, please be sure to attribute the author (see License, previous slide). You can find the rest of these materials (slides, activities, etc.) at

3. This presentation is copyrighted under the Creative Commons License
Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike
That means: Please watch it, share it, and use it in your presentations. Just give us credit, don’t make money from it, and use the same kind of license on the works that you create from it.
More information about Creative Commons licenses here:
Credit should be given to the author as indicated on each slide set.
For more information, contact Stephanie Chasteen,

4. Clickers: Why study this course?
These questions are aimed to motivate students to engage in the course

5. Can I be excused, my brain is full.
What do you think about physics?
A) I love it. I wish I could take more physics classes!
B) I find it interesting and am looking forward to this term.
C) I am ambivalent.
I dislike physics
I despise physics (can I go now?)
Good to air out at the start – have a brief but honest conversation about this.
Can clearly state that my aim is to positively shift them on this.
Can talk about reasons why they are abmivalent (or worse)
Can I be excused, my brain is full.
Courtesy Steven Pollock, University of Colorado Boulder

6. Do you like math? Massively! Yeah, kinda. Eh. Not really. Yuck!
Meta-discussion about what “math” is…
- - -
Why?
You should like math. It’s a set of tools that lets you do things you otherwise couldn’t do. It’s a language that lets you express ideas compactly and precisely.
If you don’t like math, I suggest that you’re thinking about education all wrong. You’re thinking about it as “stuff that’s inflicted on you, that you have to deal with” rather than “resources to make you more capable”.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

7. A tennis racket and can of balls (together) costs $110.
The tennis racket alone costs $100 more than the can of balls alone.
How much does the can of balls alone cost? $5
$10
$11
$100
None of these/not sure
Steve Pollock:
This exercise is a great demonstration of the power of conversation/group work. Let them do it silently on their own, it will likely come out majority B. (At least, it does for us, very repeatibly. But then let them talk to their neighbors, and the answer will likely “flip” to strong majority A (which is correct, if momentarily surprising).
(E.g., This semester we went from 38% voting A silently to 90% after about 2 minutes peer conversation)
Can use this to talk about some math (A+B=110, A-B = Where do these equations come from? What are A and B? Is there any other way that people in the room may have written A-B = 100, (many may say A = 100+B)
But also talk about the power of group reflection to correct errors, and/or to generate new ideas. Many students “get it” from their peers (though not all), and may see other ways to think about it too.
Get them to talk about what they did WRONG in the first pass – can use this to emphasize “common sense”, checking oneself, using math to confirm ideas.
Might mention that this example shows up in all sorts of contexts – tax forms, business invoices, the “two variables, two unknowns” doesn’t have to be hard or inimidating, we have good intuitions, but need to supplement those with some formalism to get the details right.
(Might also point out that the common answer, $10, is not THAT far off from the right answer. Our intuitions are generally good in physics, just not always precise. A factor of two matters sometimes!)
Dedra Demaree:
Used a similar question: A bat and a ball costs $ The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
The fast thinking response is 10 cents - but an easy check shows the bat then costs $1.10, not adding up to the correct answer.  I used this to talk about resources and monitoring, but being careful to not spend long on the activity.  My main take-home message for them was that we always needed to use resources (tools and skills we will develop throughout the course) and check our work even when doing a short voting question on a concept, driving home the idea that intuition alone isn't an appropriate way to approach such questions.
One poignant question I got from a student during the follow-up discussion was 'well then why ask 'trick questions''?
I referenced this cilcker question throughout the term and didn’t see any difference in how they approached voting questions. But it matches some important Day 1 goals so I will use it again.
Courtesy Steven Pollock, University of Colorado Boulder. Inspired by Kahnemann, “Thinking Fast and Slow,” 2011.

8. 2 socks are observed to attract each other.
Which, if any, of the first 3 statements MUST be true? (emphasis on MUST)
A) The socks both have a non-zero net charge of the same sign.
B) The socks both have a non-zero net charge of opposite sign.
C) Only one sock is charged; the other is neutral.
D) None of the preceding statements MUST be true.
Did this 8-29 (lect 2) Most students vote B, which MIGHT be true, but there are other possibilities. Must is a strong word. (We had just seencharged ballons repelling, an oppositely charged rod attracting balloons, but then also that a charged balloon sticks to a neutral wall before voting on this,. Still, they are mostly programmed from high school to respond only with “opposites attract”.)
Nice to have a meta conversations, that clicker questions sometimes have multiple “correct answers” depending on what assumptions you choose to make, that we’re not so much after “the answer” as “the reasoning and assumptions”.
Courtesy Steven Pollock, University of Colorado Boulder

9. If this class helps you discover that some things you’ve believed for a long time are not true, how would you feel?
Pleased to change my opinion.
Irritated.
Initially irritated, but eventually pleased.
Some other feeling or not sure.
Preparing students for the challenge ahead…
You can contact Doug with questions at Douglas K Duncan
Courtesy Douglas Duncan, University of Colorado Boulder

10. Does “knowing fluid mechanics” mean:
A B C D E
Getting the right answer Understanding concepts
Clicker question is answered on a continuum from A to E. Not an interactive discussion in response to clicker question, but rather she talks about roles of engineers, how the value of getting the right answer has evolved over time, and what jobs are available
Note that this follows two minute-papers: “What is Fluid Mechanics”, and “Why Study It?”
Students can exchange clickers in order to be anonymous
Jean Hertzberg, Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder

11. Why are you in this class?
I’m interested in learning more modern physics - not required
I’m interested, but it’s also required
Only because the class is required
I’m not really interested but I heard this class was better than Deal or No Deal
Other / multiple reasons
Courtesy Noah Finkelstein, University of Colorado Boulder

12. Clickers: How do you learn?

13. Learning from listening?
How much do students, on average, learn (measured by performance on conceptual survey) in traditional physics classes? a) 90% or more of material b) 75% of material c) 50% of material d) 25% of material e) 10 % or less of material
Follow this with a presentation of the data from Hake: “A six-thousand student survey…,” R. Hake, Am. J. Phys, 6,
You can contact Doug with questions at Douglas K Duncan
Answer is about 25%. (D)
Courtesy Douglas Duncan, and Noah FInkelstien University of Colorado Boulder

14. In a lecture class with an interesting, clear, engaging teacher, what fraction of the material presented during the semester does a student typically learn well? (well enough to explain to someone else)
90%
70%
50%
25%
15%
A more general presentation of the same data slide on student learning
Follow this with a presentation of the data from Hake: “A six-thousand student survey…,” R. Hake, Am. J. Phys, 6,
You can contact Doug with questions at Douglas K Duncan
Answer is 25%.
Courtesy Douglas Duncan, University of Colorado Boulder

15. Thinking of what you want to get out of your college education and this course, which of the following is most important to you?
Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
Learning how to use information and knowledge in new situations
Developing lifelong learning skills
From the article: We talked about each one, with advocates for each stating their case. The two students who favored acquisition of information revealed that it was not so much that
this option seemed most important but that it was most basic. They saw the list as hierarchical, and al- though they thought application of knowledge was more important than memorization, they felt that they had to master the factual information before they could use it. This led to further discussion of why learners needed to meet all three of these goals, even if we each held one as being more important than the other two.
Note from Bill Goffe (Economics, Penn State): I changed the question options slightly to
 A. Acquiring information (facts and basic concepts)
 B. Deeply learning new concepts that you will use the rest of your
    life for work & outside of work
 C. Improve your critical thinking skills
 D. Improve lifelong learning skills
I have 2 sections of about 400 and in both about 64% answered "B" with the
rest pretty evenly split. I suspect that this might be discipline and
institution specific. Still, it was a nice segue to more active forms
of teaching.
First Day Questions for a Learner Centered Classroom, Gary A. Smith, National Teaching & Learning Forum, 17(5), 2008.

16. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
All three of these goals are clearly important. However, let’s think for a moment of how best to accomplish these goals. Learning is not a spectator sport—it takes work; that includes work in the classroom and work that you do outside of the classroom. So, which of these do you think you can make headway on outside of class (by doing your own reading and studying)?
Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
Learning how to use information and knowledge in new situations
Developing lifelong learning skills
From the article: The polling was nearly unanimous that acquiring information was the easiest to do alone and that the other two goals seemed more complicated and would profit from peer and instructor influence. This, then, led to a discussion of how to pursue goals 2 and 3. These goals are not achieved by reading or listening to a lecturer—students must actively do things in order to learn. Students learn best when they take an active role:
• When they discuss what they are reading
• When they practice what they are learning
• When they apply practices and ideas.
The need for active learning in class in order to reach their goals leads students to accept that they have to read and otherwise prepare before coming to class by making first contact with content on their own.
This discussion became a segue to explaining how the course was structured—that it was about their learning and achieving the goals
class having read, and sometimes struggled with, the text. The problem- solving that would apply the reading content and develop logical hypothesis statements and testing would take place in class. By completing these assignments and the online assessments, they would always know whether they were mastering both the content knowl- edge and its application and relationship to how scientists know about the natural world. Moreover, I would be continually reviewing their progress, too, working with individuals where they showed lack of master y and going back to material when most of the class showed evidence of confusion and misconception.
First Day Questions for a Learner Centered Classroom, Gary A. Smith, National Teaching & Learning Forum, 17(5), 2008.

17. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
All three of these goals are clearly important. However, let’s think for a moment of how best to accomplish these goals. Learning is not a spectator sport—it takes work; that includes work in the classroom and work that you do outside of the classroom. Which of these would be best achieved in class, working with your classmates and me?
Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
Learning how to use information and knowledge in new situations
Developing lifelong learning skills
First Day Questions for a Learner Centered Classroom, Gary A. Smith, National Teaching & Learning Forum, 17(5), 2008.

18. What matters most for learning? Why? a. start intelligent
How to Learn
What matters most for learning? Why?
a. start intelligent
b. think about, test understanding, discuss.
c. spend a lot of time reviewing notes and book
d. work out problems
Carl Wieman, University of Colorado Boulder

19. Clickers: Metacognition and reflecting on learning

20. How do my clicker questions compare, on the average, to other classes you’ve taken that use clickers ?
Similar
Easier
Harder
Not necessarily easier or harder, but really different.
I’ve never taken a clicker class before.
Courtesy of Robert Parson, University of Colorado Boulder

21. Which activity best corresponds to a what people with real jobs do ?
Multiple choice exams.
CAPA or WebAssign electronic homework.
Clicker questions.
Working with others in small groups to solve problems that aren’t usually clearly stated.
Courtesy of Robert Parson, University of Colorado Boulder

22. Which statement best describes your reaction to the way we do Recitation ?
I’ve done something like this in another class (at CU or elsewhere.)
I’ve never had a class period like this, but I like it.
I’ve never had a class period like this, and I didn’t like it.
Courtesy of Robert Parson, University of Colorado Boulder

23. Questions from Ian Beatty
These questions are from Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro
While they are content questions, they all include some “meta discussion” of what learning physics is about
These are used throughout the term, not just on the first day
In the Powerpoint version of these slides, notes about the usage of the questions is in the “notes” area.

24. The exam was… very easy. easy. about the right level of difficulty.
very difficult.
not sure yet — I’m still in shock.
Reflect, discuss. Also good to give me feedback about the class zeitgeist.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

25. Which of the following overall statements about the exam do you agree with?
Questions were easy
Questions were challenging but reasonable
Questions were too hard
Content was appropriate for what we’d covered
Content was inappropriate for what we’d covered.
Exam was reasonable length
Exam was too long
Ditto.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

26. What did you think of the group portion of the exam?
It rocked.
I kinda liked it.
Eh. Could take it or leave it.
I kinda disliked it.
I never ever want to live through something like that again.
I know many Ss will have very much liked it, so I let them say it here and thus cause the few resentful ones to realize they’re in a minority. (Yes, I’m taking advantage of group psychology a bit.)
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

27. Did you do the workbook (26.1–4) for today?
Darn right I did!
Hey, I got through most of it.
I tried some.
Well, no, but you see, I’m really busy right now and we’ve got this take-home exam to do by Monday, plus there’s this other thing
Because my clicker use is completely anonymous, I can get away with blunt meta-questions like this…
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

28. Do you like math? Massively! Yeah, kinda. Eh. Not really. Yuck!
Meta-discussion about what “math” is…
- - -
Why?
You should like math. It’s a set of tools that lets you do things you otherwise couldn’t do. It’s a language that lets you express ideas compactly and precisely.
If you don’t like math, I suggest that you’re thinking about education all wrong. You’re thinking about it as “stuff that’s inflicted on you, that you have to deal with” rather than “resources to make you more capable”.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

29. Which of the following are you least comfortable using to solve problems?
Kinematics.
Newton’s laws.
The work-energy theorem.
The impulse-momentum theorem.
The angular momentum-angular impulse theorem.
Resulting discussion (“Why?”, “Do you think you should be complacent about that?”, etc.) increases self-awareness and metacognition.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

30. How comfortable are you with the concept and use of electric forces?
Clueless.
I sorta kinda think I get it, a little.
Doin’ pretty well.
Rock solid.
Ditto. [This and the next two form a series for discussing as a set.]
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

31. How comfortable are you with the concept and use of electric fields?
Clueless.
I sorta kinda think I get it, a little.
Doin’ pretty well.
Rock solid.
Ditto.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

32. How comfortable are you with the concept and use of electric potential?
Clueless.
I sorta kinda think I get it, a little.
Doin’ pretty well.
Rock solid.
Ditto.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

33. Yes, there is always at least one time.
At 6 AM, a hiker starts up a mountain from the trailhead. At 6 PM she reaches a cabin on the top, and spends the night. At 6 AM the next day she leaves the cabin and descends by a different path, returning to the base at 6 PM. Is there a time on the second day when she is at the same altitude she was at on the first day at the same time?
Students (or workshop participants) are usually quite divided about this, and can argue for a while. Sometimes someone eventually tries a graphical representation of altitude vs. time of day, collapsing both days to the same time range; if not, I may have to gentl prompt such a representation. This usually makes it fairly clear that there *must* be at least one intersection between the ascending and descending traces.
Moral and meta-discussion: Some hard problems become very easy if you can find the right representation.
[Original question by Bill Gerace, AFAIK.]
Yes, there is always at least one time.
Yes, there is possibly one time.
No, there is never a time.
Not enough information.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro. Originally by Bill Gerace, AFAIK

34. We start with one cup of water and one cup of wine.
One teaspoon of water is moved to the wine.
Then one teaspoon of the mixture is returned to the water.
Is there more water in the wine, or more wine in the water?
Input your answer. Be prepared to explain it.
This is much like the prior question: divisive, but much easier to think about in some representations than others. One can get algebraic and try to represent volumes, or… at some point, I suggest an alternate problem: two bowls, one with 100 blue marbles and one with 100 red marbles. Take a handful from one to the other, then return a random handful. Every blue marble that’s not in the blue bowl must be in the red bowl, and vice-versa. If the final number of marbles is the same in both bowls… Meta-point about the power of re-representing problems. (Again.)
Sometimes Ss get all tied up in knots about how alcohol mixes with water, whether wine already has water in it, etc. These are not intended, but also lead to a good meta-discussion about all problems having ambiguities, about how often the hardest part of a problem is figuring out what one is supposed to be focusing on, etc.
[Original question by Bill Gerace, AFAIK.]
(1) There’s more water in the wine.
(2) There’s more wine in the water.
(3) Neither; they are the same.
(4) I don’t know.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro. Originally by Bill Gerace, AFAIK

35. A marble rolls onto a piece of felt 30cm long
A marble rolls onto a piece of felt 30cm long. 20 cm in, its speed has dropped to half its initial value. Assuming constant acceleration on the felt, which is true?
Ss will tie themselves up in knots trying to solve this with kinematics. Let them. (I usually do it before they’re fully fluent with kinematics, so many don’t find their way through.)
Then, lead them (as gently as possible) to the easiest method of analysis: Graphical. Draw a simple plot of velocity vs. time. Looking at the area underneath (i.e., the displacement) shows that by the time the marble has dropped to half its original velocity, it’s traveled 3/4 of its total displacement before stopping. Ergo, it will go 4/3 that distance before stopping.
Meta-point: The power of graphical representations, especially for kinematics.
Another important distinction to draw out: Does the ball lose the same amount of velocity per unit of distance, or per unit of time? It matters… Warn Ss about being sloppy about “with respect to”.
[Original question by Bill Gerace, AFAIK.]
The marble will stop on the felt.
The marble will go past the end of the felt.
Cannot be determined.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro. Originally by Bill Gerace, AFAIK

37. Also clockwise. Counter-clockwise.
Runner A runs clockwise around an 8-mile oval track at 4 mph. A half-hour later, runner B starts at the same point and and wants to intercept runner A as soon as possible. If B can run at 6 mph, which way should she head?
This is yet another question illustrating the power of graphical reasoning in kinematics, again good for setting up a meta-discussion on the topic. The next slide supports the graphical argument.
[Original question by Bill Gerace, AFAIK.]
Also clockwise.
Counter-clockwise.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro. Originally by Bill Gerace, AFAIK

38. 8 6 4 2
A graphical solution to the runner problem is easiest…
0.5 1
1.5 2
time (hours)
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

39. Two bicyclists ride towards each other
Two bicyclists ride towards each other. One travels at 8 mph, and the other at 12 mph. A bee flies back and forth between them. If it starts when they are 2 miles apart, how far has the bee flown when the cyclists meet? Enter a number with two digits of precision.
Hard problem: setting this up as an infinite series.
Easy problem: Figuring out how long it takes the two bikes to reach each other, then how far the bee can travel in that much time.
Meta-discussion: Focusing more on looking for simple strategies and less bashing away at the first solution that comes to mind.
[I got this problem from Bill Gerace, but I think it’s pretty widespread.]
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro. Originally by Bill Gerace, AFAIK

40. How many forces act on the mass m?
Three forces.
Four forces.
Five forces.
Six forces.
None of the above.
Too many to count.
Cannot be determined.
This is an incredibly rich problem. I’ve used it in papers and talks before.
Meta-points:
* It’s your reasoning not your answer choice, that matters. It’s patently obvious that you could pick the “right” answer but have the wrong forces in mind. We focus on reasoning in this class, not on answers…
* The importance of assumptions in physics. Should you count buoyancy? It’s not wrong to, though most physicists wouldn’t. Should you count the gravitational force by the moon? Again, it’s not technically wrong, though it is silly.
* More seriously, the problem doesn’t say anything about friction. Assume it? Ambiguities are everywhere…
* We teach you that each interaction between two objects produces one force on each of the objects. However, by convention we count the contact force between the plane and block as two forces (friction and normal), even though they’re really just two components of one force. Conventions…
* One can even justify an answer of “too many to count”, if one takes a microscopic model of colliding molecules.
[Original question by Bill Gerace, AFAIK.]
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

41. An object of mass m1 moving with speed v1 in the +x-direction collides with an object of mass m2 at rest. What are the speeds and directions of the objects after the collision? Is this problem solvable?
This motivates a discussion about “determined” and “undetermined” problems, counting equations and unknowns, etc.
(With lots and lots and lots of discussion about variations on the problem, smart strategies for finding your way through the algebra, etc.)
[Question by me!]
Yes.
No.
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

42. An object of mass m1 moving with speed v1 in the +x-direction collides with an object of mass m2 at rest. The collision is elastic, and m1 scatters at an angle θ. What are the speeds and directions of the objects after the collision? Is this problem solvable?
Follow-up from the prior problem, for comparison purposes.
Yes.
No. θ
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro

43. How high will the water in the narrow tube rise?
d1 < d2
d1 = d2
d1 > d2
It will overflow.
Many students will happily choose answer (3). I then ask what would happen if the pipe bent and drained back into the top of the tank, so they realize their answer suggests a perpetual motion machine. Um… I then pull out a transparent-ish milk jug (or breakfast syrup bottle) with water half-way up the handle loop, and get them to realize that they’ve seen the answer many times.
Meta-discussion: Insisting that physics agree with real-world experiences and common sense…
[This question is in pretty much every intro physics text, I believe.]
Courtesy of Ian Beatty, UNC Greensboro