Large Lecture Hall Research Articles

Staging the Revolution (in Politics 101)

One of the most frustrating tasks in teaching “Introduction to Politics” is to convey a tangible, realistic sense of what revolution means to American undergraduate students. Insulated as most Americans are from the turbulence of political upheaval (which is actually the norm for many of the world's nation-states), ongoing revolutions around the world are very far away from their own concerns.As a result, I decided to take a chance and engage in some of my own revolutionary teaching and stage a revolution in the classroom. I conspired in advance with several graduate students who were strategically positioned throughout the large lecture hall. For the experiment to succeed, authenticity had to be the key.I seized upon one of the students' main concerns and frustrations with the course: the protracted and inconvenient scheduling of their weekly sections with the teaching assistants. Half-way through one lecture I announced a change in the T.A. assignments. One student “rebel” (one of the plants) vehemently vocalized the class' sense of outrage. My altercation with him (as I autocratically asserted my role as authority) resulted in my telling him to leave the class. When he refused, I called on my teaching assistant (“lackey running dog”) to go to the dean's office (calling on higher authority and perhaps force) to quash this rebellion. When the teaching assistant attempted to exit, the rebel physically prevented him from leaving the room (true insurrection). As I went to break up the confrontation, I was expelled, along with the teaching assistant, from the lecture hall (overthrow).

PH measurements on the overhead projector

Universal indicator solution and a corresponding pH indicator chart are used to make pH measurements of an overhead projector where the results are visible to all students in a large lecture hall.

An investigation of the sound field above the audience in large lecture halls with a scale model.

Measurements of steady-state sound pressure levels above the audience in large lecture halls show that the classical equation for predicting the sound pressure level is not accurate. The direct field above the seats was measured on a 1:10 scale model and was found to be dependent on the incidence angle and direction of sound propagation across the audience. The reverberant field above the seats in the model was calculated by subtracting the direct field from the measured total field and was found to be dependent on the magnitude and particularly on the placement of absorption. The decrease of sound pressure level versus distance in the total field depends on the angle (controlled by absorption placement) at which the strong reflections are incident upon the audience area. Sound pressure level decreases at a fairly constant rate with distance from the sound source in both the direct and reverberant field, and the decrease rate depends strongly on the absorption placement. The lowest rate of decay occurs when the side walls are absorptive, and both the ceiling and rear wall are reflective. These consequences are discussed with respect to prediction of speech intelligibility.

Scale modeling in architectural acoustics

Several types of models are available to the acoustician for the study of room acoustics. Although mathematical modeling has now become popular, due to recent advances in computer technology, the author chose to use scale modeling techniques. A 1:10 scale model was constructed to study the sound field above the audience in a large lecture hall. A steady-state jet sound source was developed to model the standard ILG reference sound source. A model of unoccupied audience seating was designed and constructed and a new approach to air absorption compensation was used. A data acquisition procedure was developed for easy and accurate comparison of data taken in both the model and the full-scale lecture hall. Verification of the model was carried out with measurements of both reverberation time and steady-state sound levels. This scale model continues to provide a useful tool for the study of sound propagation over audience seating. It also enables simple modifications to determine the dependence of the reverberant field on both the magnitude and placement of absorption within the enclosure.

An investigation of sound pressure level predictions in large lecture halls

An investigation of sound pressure level predictions in large lecture halls

An investigation of sound pressure level predictions in large lecture halls

Measurements of steady‐state sound pressure levels above the audience in large lecture halls show that the classical equation for predicting the sound pressure level is not accurate. The direct field above the seats was studied on a 1:10 scale model of a large lecture hall using the removable audience from the scale model. It was found to be dependent on the incidence angle and direction of sound propagation across the audience. The reverberant field above the seats was studied by subtracting the direct field from the measured field in the model. It was found to be dependent on the magnitude and particularly on the placement of absorption in the room. The decrease of sound pressure level versus distance in the total field depends on the angle (controlled by absorption placement) at which the strong reflections are incident upon the audience area. Sound pressure level decreases at a fairly constant rate with distance from the sound source in both the direct and reverberant field, and the decrease rate strongly depends on the absorption placement. The lowest rate of decay occurs when the side walls are absorptive, and both the ceiling and rear wall are reflective. The consequences are discussed with respect to prediction of speech intelligibility, and modifications are suggested for three current speech intelligibility prediction schemes.

Simulating an International Crisis in an Introductory Foreign Policy Course

Teaching a large introductory course at the undergraduate level is always a challenge. Except in discussion sections, students seldom have the opportunity to be more than passive notetakers in a large lecture hall. One means of increasing student participation and interest in these courses is to simulate a decisionmaking situation, providing students the oppportunity to become involved directly in a hypothetical decisionmaking forum. This type of exercise can be expected to enhance student interest in the course, comprehension of course topics, and verbal skills. Unfortunately, this type of simulation has often been restricted to smaller classes, often graduate seminars. This, however, need not be the case: a simulation exercise can also be conducted in a large undergraduate course that has discussion sessions. This article describes how a simulation of on international crisis was used as an effective teaching device in an introductory course on American foreign policy.

Medical Students and Medical School

ON A BRIGHT morning in late August in the early 1980s, a senior member of a medical school faculty attended an orientation session being held for incoming freshmen medical students. It made him feel good when he looked around the large lecture hall and saw the eager, alert, enthusiastic, and excited men and women from various walks of life and a variety of educational backgrounds. When the dean of the medical school spoke to the new freshmen students and indicated that they would have to work harder than they ever had before, the Faculty Member could almost sense them saying, That's OK! Let us at it. Medical school will be an exciting and rewarding experience and we're ready. We've been waiting for this for years. And when the dean talked about the obligations of medicine, what becoming a physician entailed, and some of the difficult problems with which they would

Introductory Courses and the Teaching Assistant

A prevalent format for teaching introductory courses is the lecture and discussion system, which, typi cally, involves a professor who handles mass lectures and assigns graduate students to smaller discussion or recita tion sections. In a recent study of the lecture/discussion format at Cornell University, Farley (1) found that stu dent reactions to the field of sociology, to the content of introductory sociology classes, and to their professors were influenced by the students' assessment of the gradu ate teaching assistant assigned to them. Briefly, both stu dent appraisals of the quality of professors' lectures and their expressed interest in sociology varied consistently with their reactions to discussion sections. To the extent that these findings hold true in other settings, it would appear that graduate teaching assistants play an extra ordinarily important role in the initial instruction?and possibly the recruiting?of undergraduate students in a particular field. Given the lack of pedagogical training in many graduate programs along with the frequent reliance on graduate teaching assistants, there is reason to examine carefully their role in the instruction of undergraduate students. As sociologists, we are, of course, primarily concerned with instruction in introductory sociology. We suggest, how ever, that the issues raised here are by no means unique to our field. Indeed, they are critical to any department which employs a form of the lecture/discussion format for teaching its introductory course. In this paper, two questions are raised: does the gradu ate teaching assistant influence reactions to introductory sociology? And, from where do students feel they derive the gist of the course?the large lecture hall or the small discussion section?

The Leidenfrost phenomenon

The paper describes four demonstrations, suitable for a large lecture hall, of the Leidenfrost phenomenon. The demonstrations show the floating of liquid drops on their own vapor above a hot surface, the delayed quenching of red-hot brass by water, the explosion of vessels containing suspended liquid droplets, and the momentary incombustibility of living tissue immersed in boiling oil. The paper also contains some history of the study of phenomenon, and suggests that it should, in fairness to Boerhaave’s prior description, be renamed the Boerhaave-Leidenfrost phenomenon.

Review of Probability Device

This product (a divue) is a probability device useful for coin and dice probability demonstrations in the classroom. It is constructed so that dice may be dropped through a randomizing hopper and displayed to the entire classroom through a large mirror. Two sets of large dice are provided with the divue, with one set biased by the insertion of lead weights in the "six" spots so that a six appears less frequently and a one more frequently than with fair dice. Also included are five "coins" (blue and red poker chips fastened together to simulate heads and tails). The divue is of sturdy wood construction and the mirror is of unbreakable plexiglass. The latter is apparently solidly affixed to the body of the divue, and the overall construction suggests that this product would provide many years of good service. The divue is designed for classroom use and may be used to introduce students to basic concepts of statistics or to actually conduct dice and coin experiments with the entire class involved. The accompanying literature claims that it can be read up to about 75 feet by people with normal eyesight and over a sweep of 90 degrees. The manufacturer also claims that it can be placed in the corner of a room 50 feet square and be read by everyone in the room. These specifications are achieved quite easily by the divue with the large "coins" and jumbo dice supplied. The reviewer tested the divue in a standard sized classroom seating 50 students and in a large sloped lecture hall seating over 250. Even in the lecture hall it was surprising to find that, when placed on the desk in front of the room with a slight upward tilt, it could be read clearly everywhere in the room, with the exception of seats in the front rows outside the 90 degree sweep angle. A ten-page teaching guide is included which provides a discussion of various probability principles and coin or dice experiments which may be demonstrated with the divue. The guide, incidentally, records the results of 1,000 tosses of one of the loaded dice in which the one and six occurred 20.8 percent and 11.4 percent of the time, as contrasted with a 16.7 percent expectation for a fair die. The relative frequency of occurrence for the other four faces are reasonably near the value .167. The regular jumbo dice may be purchased separately for $2.60 a pair and the jumbo biased dice for $4.00 a pair. The divue and accompanying "coins" and dice are an effective classroom demonstrator of possible use to any teacher wishing to use dice or coin experiments in the classroom. It is one of the few probability devices of practical use available at a price within the budget of most teaching departments.

A chemical technique for simulating molecular orbital contour models with iron filings

The authors provide a method for demonstrating orbital contour models with iron filings for a large lecture hall.

Line spectrum demonstration for the large lecture hall

The undergraduate's learning experience with quantum mechanics and Bohr's theory can be greatly enhanced by the presentation of a line spectrum demonstration, but these are often hard to see in lar...

Escuela de pedagogía - Valle de Schiffenberg - Alemania Federal

The following are included in the new building for the Teaching Science Department of the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen: — The large lecture hall seating 1,200, four smaller halls with between 500 and 200 seats, administration and management offices. — The building housing the institutes, around an inner courtyard, with two staircases, toilets, small technical departments, teaching rooms, staff room and students' meeting rooms. — Language teaching department, with sound studies and laboratories with 25 cabins each. — Music department, with rehearsing and practising rooms, acoustically conditioned. — The library, occupying two storeys: ground floor with reading rooms and upper floor with a lecture room for teachers and several offices. — Two smaller lecture rooms, holding 250 and 280. — A pavillion-cafeteria, seating 220, large kitchen and outdoor terraces. The whole is completed with a conservatory, physics laboratory, bicycle shed, housekeeper's dwelling and car park for 300 vehicles. The capacity of the installations is for approximately 2,000 students. All the buildings were made of reinforced concrete structure, faced with washed concrete slabs. The whole is characterized by fitting well into the woody landscape in which it is located and by the way the two-and three-storey buildings are grouped around the library and main halls.

Spontaneous Change and Voluntary Time in a Think Tank

Previous research with the variable spontaneous change (Means, 1965) has demonstrated a moderate inverse relationship (-.43) with California F Scale for 23 college students as well as a moderate positive relationship (.46) with the number of activities 26 VA hospital mental patients felt free to perform. The present study (Means & Harper, 1968) attempted to see whether spontaneous change was also related to jndependently sustained cognitive activity, measured by voluntary time in a think tank. Spontaneous change is thought to reflect a natural tendency to change ideas and concepts relatively independently of external contingencies such as rules, schedules, and a complex changing environment. Thus, it was reasoned that persons scoring high on spontaneous change would voluntarily keep themselves reinforced for cognitive activity when given the opportunity to think about anything they liked in a large empty room (think tank) for as long as they wished. For 20 undergraduate students from the introductory psychology class who fulfilled a 5-hr. course requirement, spontaneous change was measured as follows. Ss were asked to arrange 4 unequal-length lines on 10 separate 10-in. circles of filter paper. They were instructed to arrange these lines in any manner they wished, to have fun, and to arrange lines so that they liked each arrangement. The arrangements were scored by taking the differences in displacement of angles and distances from the sample lines, summed across drawings for a single spontaneous change score for each S.' After Ss had finished the line arrangements they were taken to the think tank, which was a large lecture hall (seating capacity of 100 students). Ss were instructed to think about anything they wished for as long as they liked, up to 5 hr. Each S was in the room alone and was free to leave if he became bored at any time after a M-hr. commitment. Paper was provided for those who chose to use it. There was a moderate positive product-moment correlation of .58 (p < .01) between time spent in the think tank and spontaneous change on the line-arrangement task. This result, although based on a small N of 20, suggests the importance of cognitive styles with respect to independently pursued activity in a rather unstructured situation.

Room 706

The title Room 106 refers to the large lecture hall on the seventh floor of Saint Francis College, Brooklyn, New York, in which the piece was presented. Although the following description is intended partly as a guide for anyone wishing to recreate the work, the title and almost everything else in such a re-creation—the dialogue, the structure, possibly even the physical set-up —would change. As was indicated when such a re-creation was presented in Argentina, based only on a vocal description, the “integrity” of the piece lies not in the particular words and images used in the original performance, but in the concept and the manner in which the material is generated.

Departamento de ingenieros de la construcción. Escuela Técnica Superior de Aquisgrán

The main nucleus of this project consists of an eight storey building, housing 9 main lecture rooms, 2 smaller ones, and drawing classrooms. Attached to it, running in a westerly direction, another building has two large lecture halls, each with seating capacity for 200 students. Finally, the Institute blocks accommodate the following: statics, construction, roads, construction machinery, soil mechanics and town planning departments. All these are connected with the main building by means of three bridges. The various buildings are planned in a highly organic manner: this avoids architectural monotony, and tends, on the contrary, to convey an impression of dynamic harmony.

Edificio en la Universidad de Liverpool

The building has three wings, whose plan form resembles the letter H. It houses the sections of pure mathematics, applied mathematics, oceanography, and the departments of numerical and statistical calculus. There is an independent access to the calculus section. The wing occupied by the mathematics section includes a basement, a semibasement, five storeys and an attic. The first two are taken up with the heating installations and washrooms of the students. The ground floor houses the doorman's quarters, two large lecture halls, and an impressive entrance hall. The second and third floors are devoted to lecture rooms, and the two top storeys are divided into small rooms. The dean lives in the attic. The oceanography section, of a single floor level, including laboratories, connects the front and the rear parts of the building. The block facing Bedford Street has two storeys, and is devoted to numerical and statistical calculus work, except for an annex that belongs to the oceanography section. The communications of the various sections takes place along the ground floor. The various parts of this project constitute an organic whole, outstanding for its functional efficiency and good environmental adaptation, both towards exterior and interior.

Modern Physics Teaching and the Transition from School to University

The calculated ambiguity of the initial phrase of the title facilitated the inclusion of a substantial range of topics in one day of conference. More than two hundred school teachers, with a scattering of administrators, inspectors, university teachers and industrial physicists, attended and enjoyed the meeting, which had by courtesy of the authorities of the Royal Scottish Museum been transferred at rather short notice to the large and comfortable lecture hall of the museum. The attendance was much larger than was at first expected, and a good deal too large for effective discussion, so that most people seemed to feel in the end that the meeting had been stimulating but inconclusive.

More Effective Teaching of Physics through Television

The teaching of introductory physics courses to large groups of students has been conducted in the past by the use of large lecture halls. Problems that arise in such situations are numerous, some of the major ones being (1) making equipment large enough to be seen by everyone, (2) finding storage space for much large equipment, (3) keeping the lecture hall free of students for one whole period to provide ample time for setting up demonstrations, etc. Methods for solving these problems are presented here. By building three lecture room fronts on a single turntable, two complete lecture periods become available for setup time. Roll-in tables are not satisfactory. By using TV cameras with TV monitors suspended from the ceiling, demonstrations can be made clearly visible to everyone. An alternate solution, and in many respects the best one, is to develop several TV studio areas, use TV methods entirely, and by closed circuit transmission to monitors in small classrooms, reach students in groups of twenty-five or thirty. A teaching assistant in each of these rooms is then available for more intimate discussions.