An Interactive Student Participation System

我们建议在典型的本科科学课程的重大变化，彻底改变大型讲座的形式。我们计划使用新技术，让学生在讲座中的互动参与。同时，我们的计划还包括在讲座中使用同伴指导。 今天的经济和对未来的预测表明，讲座类只能增加规模和振兴大型讲座是必要的。振兴也是必要的，因为大规模辍学是困扰入门科学（特别是物理）课程的一个问题，这些辍学有一个大的，通常是少数民族，学生的组成部分。IIT在来自芝加哥高中的学生中有很强的代表性。准备不足（绝不仅限于芝加哥）增加了问题的紧迫性。 我们已经开始了一项实验，使用商业无线网络和软件在1995年春季学期，使一个大型讲座类感觉更小，提供在线反馈的讲师，并提供动力，为学生在一个大型类（大于40），积极参与学习过程。虽然我们的实验在几个不同的班级中进行了不到一个学期的时间，但它的前景表明需要进一步的试验和改进。由于我们的大部分设备都是借来的，我们正在申请资金，以进行为期两年的该计划的开发和评估。 我们计划监测我们的进展，并在美国物理教师协会的主要会议以及当地会议上描述结果，随后将提交书面报告。我们工作的初步结果于1995年8月在斯波坎举行的AAPT会议上发表。 该项目由两名经验丰富的教师实施;该项目的PI已经教授了30多年的物理入门课程。

We propose major changes in the typical undergraduate science curriculum by drastically changing the large lecture format. We plan to use new technology to allow the interactive participation of students in the lecture. At the same time our plans also include the use of peer instruction during the lecture. The economics of today and projections for the future suggest that lecture classes can only increase in size and that revitalization of the large lecture is a necessity. Revitalization is also necessary since large scale dropouts are a problem which plague introductory science (especially physics) courses, and these dropouts have a large, usually minority, student component. IIT has a strong representation of students from Chicago high schools. The poor preparation (by no means limited to Chicago) adds to the urgency of the problem. We have initiated an experiment using commercial wireless keypads and software during the Spring semester 1995 to make a large lecture class feel smaller, to provide on-line feedback to the lecturer and to provide motivation for students in a large class (greater than 40) to actively participate in the learning process. While our experiment has been not quite a semester in length in several different classes, its promise suggests further trials and improvements. Since much of our equipment was borrowed we are requesting funding to pursue the development and assessment of this program for a two year period. We plan to monitor our progress and describe the results at major American Association of Physics Teachers meetings as well as local meetings which are to be followed by written reports. Preliminary results of our work were presented at the AAPT meeting in Spokane in August, 1995. This project is being carried out by two experienced teachers; the PI of this project has been teaching introductory physics for over 30 years.