P.W. YoungUniversity of Wisconsin-Platteville

Sponsored by NSF-DUE CCLI #0633583

Class designed to encourage interactive engagement between instructor and students and amongst students

Students sit and work in groups of 3 or 4 Laboratory activities are integrated into

the instruction rather than separate Studio Physics

Workshop (~25 students) Studio (~50 students) SCALE-UP (~100 students)

Three identical studio classrooms (32’ x 60’) 14 stations, 4 students per station = 56 per class Instructor station with computer & document

camera in front corner Demonstration table with video projection Dual projection Whiteboards around room (>80’) 2 sinks in back corners Some storage in back of room

All 3 classrooms are connected to a storeroom

Lab Table (3’ x 6’) Oriented length-wise with respect to front Two post mounts per table Storage slot for low-friction tracks, posts, and

meter sticks under table Storage Cabinet (1½’ x 3’)

Data acquisition, carts, etc. PC

Lecture Group Work

Concepts Problems Computer Simulations Peer Instruction

Hands-on learning activities Labs

Note: Two instructors are present during major laboratory activities

The studio classrooms are designed to support all the methods of instruction listed in the previous slide.

All introductory physics classes are taught in the studio classrooms, but instructors are not required to adopt any particular style of instruction

Pre- and post- Force Concept Inventory (FCI) has been administered for 3 years 3 semesters in classes taught in traditional classroom

with separate labs but with some interactive engagement

1 semester in studio classrooms with separate labs 2 semesters in studio classrooms with lab

FCI administered on-line via Desire to Learn course management platform

Voluntary participation but with some reward Reward equivalent to 1 or 2 points on an exam or a

homework assignment Reward independent of performance Participation levels vary with instructors, sometimes

very poor, other times quite good

In order to assess the effectiveness of studio instruction, I established a 10-point Studio Index to reflect the degree of studio instruction taking place in a particular class, as opposed to lecture. 0 – 5 based on % of class time spent in active

learning 0 – 1 for group problem solving in class 0 – 1 for group discussions of concepts 0 – 1 for integration of lab into the class 0 – 1 for use of hands-on learning activities 0 – 1 for full class discussions/sharing

I assigned a studio index to each class based on an interview with the instructor.

I then looked at how the normalized gains and the post-FCI scores compared to the studio indices.

FCI Post-Test Score versus Studio Index

FCI Normalized Gain versus Studio Index

Interactive Engagement in a physics class is a lot of work

I’m not sure whether the Studio Index is a proper measure of the interactive engagement taking place in a class

Still too little data to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of the studio classes Large turnover in instructors Not enough classes with Studio Index > 5