Classroom Demonstrations in Introductory Mechanics

摘要

This paper presents a number of low-cost and effective classroom demonstrations for use in elementary mechanics courses. Use of the demonstrations will increase both student learning and enjoyment of the course, with the desired effect of motivating and inspiring students to continue to learn. The reader is encouraged both to try out the demonstrations given here and to develop new ones. Course-end feedback provided by our students has consistently shown a highly positive student response to the demonstrations, which tend to form the core of what students recall even years later. Additionally, the benefit of physical demonstrations is not limited to just the one phenomenon demonstrated, but carries over into the students' impression and enjoyment of the entire course. Both the student comments and responses in Fig. 9 show that our Mechanics of Materials class was much more effective at motivating and inspiring the students during the Fall 2001 and 2002 semesters than during the Fall 2000 semester, when demonstrations were not used. The end result of our effort to create physical demonstrations was a significant increase in student enjoyment of the course and material, satisfaction and renewed commitment to becoming engineers, and an increase in student motivation to learn and continue learning.