Innovative Use of a Classroom Response System During Physics Lab

摘要

More and morephysics instruc-tors are makinguse of personal/classroomresponse systems or "clickers:"The use of clickers to engagestudents with multiple-choicequestions during lecture andavailable instructor resourcesfor clickers have been welldocumented in this journal.~(1-4)Newer-generation clickers,which I refer to as classroomresponse systems (CRS),have evolved to accept nu-meric answers (such as 9.81)instead of just single "mul- tiple-choice" entries (Fig. 1). This advancement is availablefrom most major clicker companies and allows for a greatervariety of engaging questions during lecture. In addition, thesenew "numeric ready" clickers are marketed to be used for stu-dent assessments. During a test or quiz, students' answers areentered into their clicker instead of on paper or Scantron" andimmediately absorbed by wireless connection into a computerfor grading and analysis. I recognize the usefulness and ben-efit these new-generation CRSs provide for many instructors.However, I do not use my CRS in either of the aforementionedactivities. Instead, I use it in an unconventional way. I use theCRS to electronically capture students' lab data as they are per-forming a physics lab (Fig. 2). I set up the clickers as if I weregoing to use them for a test, but instead of entering answers toa test, my students enter lab data as they collect it. In this paperI discuss my use of a classroom response system during phys-ics laboratory and three benefits that result: 1) Students areencouraged to "take ownership of" and "have integrity with"their physics lab data. 2) Students' measuring and unit conver-sion deficiencies are identified immediately during the lab. 3)The process of grading students' labs is simplified because theresults of each student's lab calculations can be pre-calculatedfor the instructor using a spreadsheet. My use of clickers dur-ing lab can be implemented with most clicker systems avail-able to instructors today. The CRS I use is the eInstruction's' Classroom Performance System~(TM) (CPS~(TM)).~5(Fig.1)