Abstract
Introductory physics students may learn more from online demonstrations than from live demonstrations.
Highlights
Live science demonstrations have a distinguished history: in the 19th century, huge crowds gathered to watch Michael Faraday illustrate new discoveries in physics and chemistry [1]
We conducted oneon-one, structured interviews to validate how students interpret the survey statement “I really enjoyed this demonstration” (13 students total). These students provided a representative sample of the entire population as measured by their CLASS scores, FCI scores, and final course grades. These interviews revealed that students interpret this statement primarily as (i) how much they learned from the demonstration, (ii) how it helped them better understand the lecture, and (iii) how it illustrated physics as applied to the real world
The literature shows that student learning from live demonstrations is limited, these limitations can be mitigated with best practices
Summary
Live science demonstrations have a distinguished history: in the 19th century, huge crowds gathered to watch Michael Faraday illustrate new discoveries in physics and chemistry [1]. Instructors use demos to liven up “boring lectures” [2,3] and to help students develop and remember an intuitive, conceptual understanding of the world [2,4,5]. Successful demos can highlight—and resolve—students’ misconceptions about the physical world. Demos illustrate physical principles that can otherwise seem abstract and disconnected from the real world [3], and can increase students’ interest in physics [6]. There is a canon of physics and chemistry demos that are used in introductory classes, almost as a course of habit. Research has shown that demonstrations are not always effective in promoting student learning
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