These disciplines, among the most challenging that students encounter as undergraduates, will be introduced in classroom settings designed by our architects, Ellensweig Associates, in close collaboration with Dickinson students and faculty who have pioneered innovative and effective approaches to teaching that dispense with tradition lecture methods in favor of hands-on, collaborative experiences for beginning students. All introductory physics courses at Dickinson have been taught in a workshop format since 1987. Students meet in three, two-hour sessions each week. Students pitch baseballs, whack bowling balls with rubber hammers, pull objects up inclined planes, ignite paper with compressed air, attempt to spin themselves in pirouettes, and devise engine cycles with rubber bands. They measure these interesting operations with various sensors connected to the computers by a universal interface developed by Dickinson faculty and their collaborators.
Students use their measurements to test their hypotheses about the physical world.
All this work is guided by a faculty member and two undergraduate teaching assistants. The learning occurs in a specially-designed space which facilitates student inquiry and faculty interaction. Students learn by doing and by reflecting on what they have done. Grouped in pairs before computer in specially designed laboratories, students proceed from informal to guided inquiry with the assistance of a faculty member who prods students toward meaningful understanding through questioning, conversation and summary discussion. The workshop approach requires that students become active learners.