Showing my cards: Inquiry in my classroom

Since there is a bit of commenting going on about Ellen Granger’s talk, I thought that – in the interest of transparency – I’d show you what I’m up to.  A look at my 72-student classroom will make it pretty clear.

I should also admit that I’m using the Physics by Inquiry curriculum developed at the University of Washington (Mc Dermott et al.).  It’s foolproof inquiry designed for instructors like me who aren’t inquiry experts.  It’s very carefully scripted, and it even tells me when to talk to the class and what to talk about.

I’m also using undergraduate learning assistants for the first time.  For those who are not familiar with this, the idea is to give pre-service physics teachers some experience in inquiry instruction.  I have two this semester.