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P122 community lab example:

The labs are an integral part of the course. The lab is structured for students to work in groups of four. They are given a (one sentence) question to answer through an experiment. Labs are carried out over two weeks — a total of four hours.  In the first week, students design an experiment and collect data.  In the second week, they analyze the data, seeing what they have learned and how certain their results are.  They then present their results to the class for discussion. This could be a class-wide verbal presentation, but a poster presentation using a white board seems to work better. Each group prepares a board with results/tables/plots on a white board and presents a board to other groups for discussion. Compared to class-wide verbal discussions, students feel more comfortable and confident in this setting, and their discussions tend to be more in depth. It allows shy and quiet students to be actively engaged in discussions. It offers an effective peer instruction in a collaborative learning environment. It does not depend on a TA’s capability to facilitate class-wide discussions.

If students miss a scheduled lab section with a valid excuse, they can get permission to attend another lab session in the same week. If the lab cannot be made up in the same week, students could get permission to attend another lab session during the makeup week. In such a case, students are asked to propose and design an experiment similar to (but not exactly the same) the experiment they missed.  They are grouped (up to students in a group) to have a brainstorm discussion to come up with a Physics question and design an experiment prior to the makeup week. The equipment will be limited to what was used during the semester. Students perform the experiment, analyze the data, and write a report during the lab.

A proposed approach for the P131/132 lab:

A “mix-and-match” of the traditional lab and the community lab.

• After a traditional experiment, pose a question and ask students to design an experiment to answer the question using the same equipment. (e.g., give a cookbook for single slit diffraction and ask about double slit interference).

For class discussions, we could use ppt presentations on Wimba Classroom.

Eun-Suk Seo 4/26/11