On Research Science classes focus on problem-based learning It's Friday afternoon, and a call comes in concerning an automobile accident that just occurred. It is a two-car collision with possible speeding, possible running of a stop sign and a possible fatality at the scene. Sounds like a job for the local police. But, this case was solved by the Honors Physics class. The class is group-oriented.
Students cooperate in groups of four to solve problems and to answer each other's questions.
Group effort enables students to help one another work through the problems so that they eventually uncover the pertinent information themselves. One or two problems in the hour exams are solved in the group, while the remainder are done individually. For example, the traditional center of gravity problem that may have appeared in a textbook was replaced by the students actually estimating their own centers of gravity with a book bag, placed either on or off their shoulders. Students could then understand how the center of gravity would shift in a person who had lost an arm or a leg. Duch also approaches the topic of acceleration in a novel way.