OK, this was a good day. No. It was a great day!

I cut down the review of the home content to 10 minutes, and was happy to see so many students participating in the student-driven review by offering their own explanations and definitions. Students know to come to class prepared and looking to participate. I can see where this could turn into a situation where only a handful of students participate though, and will seek to eliminate this pre-review and jump more quickly into the Peer Instruction portion of the class.

I also cut down the number of questions I asked by half. We did not feel so rushed, and it gave more time for deeper discussion. I guess one of my weaknesses is trying to cram too much into my class sessions (and exams too). I will constantly ask myself if I have too many questions, and if can I make due with fewer.

After making our way through a series of experiments where students had to determine the explanatory and response variables I stopped the class to make sure my students understood why I am using the approach. I asked them how confident they were about knowing the difference between an observational study and a designed experiment as well as how confident they were in their ability to identify explanatory and response variables. They were highly confident. Then I asked them if they would have felt as confident learning the material in the opposite order – with me giving the definitions and some examples followed by them cementing their understanding working at home. I saw the lights come on for many students. They understood that their learning was much greater in this system, and I think I have a great deal of buy-in from them now.

Tomorrow we turn our attention to an activity involving sampling techniques instead of a Learning Catalytics assessment. Although we won’t be using our “clickers” I will try to encourage the same level of discussion that I witnessed today.