Home

SCALE-UP Physics at Penn State Erie

Time: 3:20 - 4:05
Location: Room 109
Presenters: Jonathan Hall, Senior Lecturer
Bill Baxter, Associate Professor
Bruce Wittmershaus, Associate Professor
Jerry Magraw, Senior Laboratory Technician
Meredith Hyldahl, Undergraduate Student
Charles Barr, Undergraduate Student
Arthur Russakoff, Undergraduate Student

SCALE-UP (Student Centered Activities for Large Enrollment University Programs), a program started by Bob Beichner at North Carolina State University, was adapted for the teaching and learning of introductory physics at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, starting in spring 2007.

When a large room became available, and with a grant from the Committee on Instructional Facilities (UCIF), a former machine shop room was converted into a SCALE-UP classroom that seats seventy-two students at eight large round tables. Each table is equipped with computers interfaced for data acquisition and analysis. The room also includes three projectors with screens, and equipment for basic physics experiments.

A comparison of student learning in the SCALE-UP to the traditional lecture course will be discussed, as well as information that may be helpful to instructors interested in exploring how to change a classroom to promote active learning.

Comments

April 15, 2007 - 12:09am — ema5022

Very useful ideas

I found the ideas and methodology presented very useful and would be interested in seeing them adapted to introductory astronomy - 'sage on the stage' lectures frequently do not provide ample opportunity for students to grasp some of the more esoteric topics...

E. Aitala

April 14, 2007 - 9:21pm — b2p

Student expectations in Physics

I was most struck by the cultural change that was discussed when the SCALEUP program was introduced to the students at Erie. One student’s comment that the instructor was “...making us teach ourselves” highlighted for me other statements made that students are used to being given the answer and are only memorizing how to solve a problem, just to forget it in a couple of weeks.

The idea that students, in a team, must come prepared to the lab so that they can complete the assignment in the allotted time is not an outrageous expectation. The teams are initially created by selecting one student from each of three cohorts, each cohort based on a student’s standing in math. Getting students to think and commit to a solution is effective. It is active, not passive, learning. But tackling the students’ feelings that this is hard work and not what they expected could be a long battle as cultural change does take time.

I guess it is no surprise for me to report that the presentation included an activity, done in groups, about a physics concept that required the group to take a position on which of two items would reach the bottom of an incline first.

It was also refreshing to hear from the students who co-presented with Jonathan Hall. A student supplements two instructors who are in the lab to guide the student groups working on their assignment, and these students really believe in the program. It was a pleasure to hear that they saw the benefits, even if some of the students they were guiding did not.

As this program continues, it will be exciting to see how students take to heart active learning and how they apply it in the future.