Excerpt from: Improving
Physics Education through a Diverse Research and Learning
Community at Florida International University by Laird Kramer,
Eric Brewe, and George OâBrien Pg 29-32 of the Summer 2008 issue of the APS Forum on Education Newsletter
The first
studio classes at FIU were our introductory, modeling-based studio physics
classes pioneered to support our undergraduate community
members. We offer three, 30-student sections of modeling-based
physics classes each semester. Cooperative learning is thought to
better support under-represented minorities and women than
traditional classrooms; hence, our studio classrooms support all
students including minorities and women, in alignment with our goals
and research focus. These courses have been extremely successful, in
terms of student learning outcomes, faculty assessments,
and recruiting. The average student performance on the Force
Concept Inventory (FCI) [Hes92] in the modeling-based courses is
roughly a factor of 2.5 better than in our traditional courses. Also,
the DWF rate (drop, withdraw, fail) in modeling based classes is
1/4th the DWF rate in traditional classes. Faculty evaluations
and student feedback have been overwhelmingly positive, and
the courses are drawing roughly four times the room capacity in
requests to enter the class. We also find 10-20% of the students
pursue physics minors and majors after taking the course, either adding a
second major/minor or switching majors.