Three teams of four students spent Winter Session collaboratively problem solving how to manipulate Myro robots and how to create learning games for young children who have received an XO laptop from the One Laptop per Child program.
The physics department has replaced the traditional large introductory lecture with smaller classes that emphasize hands-on, interactive, collaborative learning. Last fall, after years of experimentation and debate and resistance from students, who initially petitioned against it, the department made the change permanent. Already, attendance is up and the failure rate has dropped by more than 50 percent.
It then follows that as faculty we would seek to create such communities for our students, to foster their own rigor and creativity of thought and communication--to develop their own expertise.