Simple Peer Techniques   - by Doug Duncan Getting started From reading educational research, I discovered that connecting in-class experiences to the rest of a student's life is an effective teaching technique. So I began to think of things that occur in class that relate to the rest of students' lives. Then, at the beginning of each course, I asked the students, "What are you most interested in? What would you like to get out of this class?" I've done that for a number of years, and there's 80%-90% commonality from one year to the next -- people want to know about life in the universe. People also want to know: Did our universe have a beginning? What's at the edge of the universe? And so on. There are probably four or five big questions like these that transcend astronomy and almost become philosophical. So if I build those into the class, they become a motivating factor for a large number of students. Students have told me that. Many faculty will not feel comfortable with this approach; it's dangerous because it involves some lack of control. My response is that there is a wealth of research identifying what is important to the huge population of people who don't major in science but do take an introductory science course. The two big sellers in astronomy are: Is this practical -- can I use it somewhere in my life or career? Well, I know that life in the universe isn't part of my career, but darn it, that's really interesting. Faculty can almost certainly engage their students when they use these two criteria in creating an introductory science course. Tell me more about this activity: A brief description Examples Getting started More thoughts on this Why I like this activity More about Doug Duncan

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