Activities to accompany Tutorials: Introductory notes

The hands-on activities originally grew out of lecture demonstrations. The lecture demonstrations were made available in tutorials so that students would have a chance to see and use the demonstrations themselves, rather than observe them from a distance. Hence many of the activities described here are standard lecture demonstrations.

Other activities involve simple apparatus or objects which the students may already be familiar with, including everyday household objects. Using simple objects which the students are likely to have at home encourages them to make links between the physics they are learning in class and the everyday world when they walk out of the class room. In addition, they may experiment with the same objects or ideas at home, and explain them to parents or friends, reinforcing their own understanding. A few of the activities use the students themselves and require little or no extra apparatus. Students particularly enjoy activities where they learn about their own bodies.

Students learn best when they are active and when they are engaged with the material they are learning. Laboratory classes are an active learning experience, but many students find them stressful as they (believe they) have to complete an experiment in the allowed time, and get the correct results to obtain the marks for the experiment. This limits their ability to explore the physics and experiment with the apparatus in their own time and on their own terms.

The hands-on activities in the workshop tutorials help to engage the students in active learning, which helps to stimulate deep learning. It also breaks up the hour, getting the students up and moving for at least a few minutes, which allows them to maintain concentration on the physics for longer.

Extensive evaluation of the workshop tutorials at the collaborating institutions in the Workshop Tutorial Project have shown the hands-on activities to be one of the most enjoyable aspects of the tutorials for both students and tutors. They are singled out by students as one of the most important learning activities in their physics courses.

Each activity sheet contains a description of the apparatus, a brief description of how it is used, and the relevant physics. Each sheet also has a suggested label for the activity. If students are not familiar with the apparatus it helps to have a label telling them what it is, and giving some instructions on how to use it. It is also useful to repeat the associated questions on the worksheet, as students often leave their worksheets on their tables when they go to do the activities. Where appropriate, safety warnings are also given. These labels can be used as single A4 sheets placed in front of the apparatus. If they are to be used frequently it is worth putting them in plastic sleeves, particularly for those used in the fluids workshops.