Class time invariably goes quickly. And with a good mix of students the classes can be particularly lively and enjoyable. ECE 109, ECE 207 and ECE 209 is follow each of the three class meetings with an hour of lab. I feel this has really helped reinforce the investigations. But nothing comes for free.
Investigations are a fair amount of work.
They invariably take a long time to write, they invariably take the students a fair amount of time to do and then correct and they invariably take a fair amount of time to grade. Now the big question, of course, is how well do these investigations really work. Are they worth all the work. I particularly like this scheme because of its simplicity and the fact that it's completely voluntary. Instructors can either use or not use the problems, they can reword them and they decide how much to count them on the final.