A.Do make demos big enough, or adequately project them to be easily
visible from the far reaches of the room.
Do visibility tests – before class; ask someone to sit in several
locations around the room and verify that the phenomena can be easily seen
and/or heard.
B.Don’t make demos too big – this can be a waste of resources and
storage space plus the demo will probably be more difficult to work with so
it is less likely to get used.
A.
Do
rehearse; it is important to be perceived as knowing what you are doing.
B.Don’t stumble through the demo at the last second and risk botching
it. This tells the students the demo
is not important and you may even end up confusing them.
A.
Do use
safe laboratory practice – students learn more by example than they do by
words.
B.Don’t take safety short cuts and then tell the students “don’t do
that” – the students will learn “obviously someone who knows what they are
doing does not need to bother with safety.”
A.
Do use
demos to introduce new concepts.
Keep it simple – only introduce one new concept at a time, focus on the
concept alone at first (equations will come later), make the apparatus as
straight forward as possible, and only tell the students what they need to
know to understand the concept.
B.Don’t present several new concepts in a single demo or give a vague
hand waving explanation of a phenomena then launch into the math.
The explanation and equations will be easier to understand once the
students have experienced the phenomena.
A.Do be entertaining & relaxed – a little showmanship can go a long
way and a relaxed atmosphere will encourage the students to risk
participating.
B.Don’t sacrifice your dignity by being too much of a ham or allowing
the classroom to degenerate into chaos.
•Do
be inviting, enthusiastic, and encouraging – fight against the stereotype
that one must be super brilliant to understand physics.
Empower the students – they can do it.
•Don’t
be intimidating, arrogant, elitist, or subordinating – My first physics
course, “This is the most difficult topic you will ever study!”
A.Do go at a balanced pace.
It is okay to have pauses for the students to think and reflect.
B.Don’t go too fast or too slow – rushing does not promote learning
or participation; going too slow will cause the class to drag and the
students will lose interest.
A.Do get the students invested in the demonstration.
Make it a puzzle, a challenge or a playful deception.
Make sure they thoroughly understand the experimental setup and what
you are planning to do. Encourage
the students to discuss the impending outcome amongst themselves.
Ask them what they predict will happen - use playful betting
(imaginary money), voting, or other techniques to generate friendly
competition.
B.Don’t enforce a silent stoic classroom; tell the students what will
happen, quickly do the demonstration and then move on.
A.Do discuss the outcome: Did it do what they predicted? Why/why not?
What further experiments could be done to test their hypotheses?
B.Don’t simply say well here is how it works and launch into a
detailed numerical explanation.
A.Do follow up experiments if time and equipment allows.
Guide, but let the students lead the investigation.
B.Don’t demean or insult their attempts.