No Lectures, no exams, and no graded homework - but you will learn much more...
Welcome to MSE 220 for the Fall 2015 term. Please take a look at the introductory video below where I discuss the updates to the course this year. Those updates are that we will be using a different textbook annotation tool, Perusall.com, instead of nb.mit.edu. You should also take a look at the second video where I describe the rest of the course.
This was the welcome video from Fall 2014.
Course Description:
This section of MSE 220 will be taught in a similar format to what I taught in one of the sections in Fall 2014 but quite different from the traditional approach that is taught in the other sections. Instead of meeting 4 times a week (as is done in the lecture version of the course), we will meet twice a week for 2 hours each (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30), with a third (optional) hour after each class for office hours and project group work (from 5:30-6:30) in Chrysler 133 and 165. There will not be any formal lecture but rather group work and guided inquiry work. Homework will be given and you will be expected to read the book. The syllabus will be slightly reordered but all of the topics will be the same as all MSE 220 sections. The syllabus for this term can be accessed on the menu at the top of the page to give you an idea of what the course structure will look like.
There will be a strong deemphasis on grades and there will not be any midterm or final exams. I want students to learn, not focus on grades. I believe that the role of the University is to educate students, not to rank students. I also believe that it is important for students to have the opportunity to embrace failure on their path to learning, without being penalized in their grade.
THE BOOK:
You must purchase the book from a special website provided by Wiley, the publisher of Callister’s 9th edition textbook, “Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction” to allow us to use an electronic version of the book, at a very reasonable price, with a new electronic reader/annotation website called Perusall.com. This is one of the most innovative pedagogical tools available today. You will have to purchase the e-book either through the special Wiley site at this link:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-823803.html
We were able to negotiate a really good deal that is cheaper than Amazon.com’s price. You will be able to purchase either an e-book that can be read on Mac, PC, IOS, or Android) or a binder ready version, as well as access the entire text at Perusall.com during the term.
You MUST purchase the book through the special Wiley site in order to get access to the book on Perusall. Without access to the site you will not be able to earn the part of the course grade based on the annotations to the text. It is 25% of the total course grade. Everyone is required to purchase this version of the book so that you can participate in our crowdsourced reading of the book and get credit for this very important part of the course. The book will be posted on Perusall.com where you will annotate (ask and answer questions, fill in missing parts, rephrase, etc) portions of the book and read the annotations of the other students.
Below are two short videos that explain what we did in the Fall 2013 version of the course:
This section of MSE 220 will be taught in a similar format to what I taught in one of the sections in Fall 2014 but quite different from the traditional approach that is taught in the other sections. Instead of meeting 4 times a week (as is done in the lecture version of the course), we will meet twice a week for 2 hours each (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30), with a third (optional) hour after each class for office hours and project group work (from 5:30-6:30) in Chrysler 133 and 165. There will not be any formal lecture but rather group work and guided inquiry work. Homework will be given and you will be expected to read the book. The syllabus will be slightly reordered but all of the topics will be the same as all MSE 220 sections. The syllabus for this term can be accessed on the menu at the top of the page to give you an idea of what the course structure will look like.
There will be a strong deemphasis on grades and there will not be any midterm or final exams. I want students to learn, not focus on grades. I believe that the role of the University is to educate students, not to rank students. I also believe that it is important for students to have the opportunity to embrace failure on their path to learning, without being penalized in their grade.
THE BOOK:
You must purchase the book from a special website provided by Wiley, the publisher of Callister’s 9th edition textbook, “Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction” to allow us to use an electronic version of the book, at a very reasonable price, with a new electronic reader/annotation website called Perusall.com. This is one of the most innovative pedagogical tools available today. You will have to purchase the e-book either through the special Wiley site at this link:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-823803.html
We were able to negotiate a really good deal that is cheaper than Amazon.com’s price. You will be able to purchase either an e-book that can be read on Mac, PC, IOS, or Android) or a binder ready version, as well as access the entire text at Perusall.com during the term.
You MUST purchase the book through the special Wiley site in order to get access to the book on Perusall. Without access to the site you will not be able to earn the part of the course grade based on the annotations to the text. It is 25% of the total course grade. Everyone is required to purchase this version of the book so that you can participate in our crowdsourced reading of the book and get credit for this very important part of the course. The book will be posted on Perusall.com where you will annotate (ask and answer questions, fill in missing parts, rephrase, etc) portions of the book and read the annotations of the other students.
Below are two short videos that explain what we did in the Fall 2013 version of the course:
Some History:
I have been teaching MSE 220 or similar versions since 1996. Two years ago I used an approach that is the result of years of research in the science of learning. It combines peer teaching and active learning methods that were first developed by Professor Eric Mazur at Harvard. In 1994, Mazur became, arguably, the first in the world to use audience response systems (now known as “clickers”) for education. He also wrote a book called "Peer Instruction" where he championed the idea that the best person to teach someone a concept was the person sitting next to them. I learned about this in 1996 and was the first faculty member to use a clicker system (wired TI-83 calculators and some software) in a lecture on the UM campus. I was also the first to reject it because the technology got in the way of learning while teaching a traditional lecture. It has taken me many years to realize that traditional lecture has little or no value in education. Three years ago I did an experiment in MSE 220 where I gave my traditional lecture on Mondays and Fridays but did not lecture on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays I had the students work on active learning and peer teaching activities for the entire 50 minute session. Then I tagged question on the exams that were based on the Wednesday preparation so that I could compare student performance to those exam questions that were based on the traditional preparation. The results were very interesting. Students performed 10-19 points better (the median score based on 100 points) on those questions that were based on the active learning/peer teaching pedagogy.
After seeing those results I have realized that I needed to find a very different approach to teaching. Eric Mazur also happens to work in the same research area as me - ultrafast laser solid interaction. I have known Eric for a long time and when I ran into him at the Materials Research Society meeting in Boston in November, 2012, we started talking about my most recent teaching experiment. He told me about his new approach to teaching where he has completely eliminated lectures as well as exams. The next day I visited Eric at Harvard and went to his class. It was amazing. When I returned to Michigan I wrote a proposal to try and develop a similar approach to teaching MSE 220 in Fall 2013. I have since visited Eric in February and went to two more of his classes and spent three days talking to his instructional staff. I also visited him in April to learn even more. The students who have been through this approach have all told me that they have never enjoyed a course more - and never worked harder. They actually like doing their homework.
My goal is simple. I want to inspire my students to want to learn and give them the opportunity to grasp concepts and the mindset needed to solve engineering problems that involve materials. Hence, this course is being offered in this new format. I am going to emulate Eric's class as much as possible and see if it will produce similar results in Materials Science and Engineering.
In-Class Work:
We will be using an advanced, bring your own device, clicker system called LearningCatalytics to deliver questions during class time. These questions will be focused on concepts and examples to build on what you have read. You will be expected to pay the LearningCatalytics fee, but it is very inexpensive, only $12 per student. We will use LearningCatalytics just about every session.
Homework:
The homework will not be graded, but you will compare your solutions with your team in class and write a better solution set as a group and then compare it to the solutions that I hand out. Then you will write a reflection piece about how hard you worked on the homework, what was easy, and what you still don't understand. You will also rate the effort of each of your group members.
Groups:
Teams of 5 will be formed three times during the term. That means that each person will interact with 12 different people during the term. We will be using a tool called CATME.org to form teams intelligently.
Projects:
We will have three open ended projects that will be based on the material we are covering in each third of the course. Each group will produce a whiteboard video, a poster, and a video (with people in it) to convey the results of their work. We will also use CATME.org to perform a peer review at the end of each project.
Grading:
Grading will be done by a variety of rubrics including;
(1) the quality, quantity, and timeliness of annotations to the text using Perusall.com,
(2) Written reflections about the homework,
(3) Learning Catalytics (LC) Pre-work: You will be given an LC module two days before class that will be similar to the problems we will be doing in class. It is critical for the peer instruction process that you attempt these on your own. We include many simple problems and expect that anyone who has done the reading will be able to answer at least 25% of the gradable problems correctly. Please try all of them, even the ones that are not gradable.
(4) Readiness Assurance Assessments (RAAs) of material covered in guided learning activities. These will be done using LearningCatalytics.com software that, as described above, will cost each student $12.00 for the term. Students will bring a wifi enabled device (laptop, iOS or Android smartphone or tablet) and questions will be posed and answered numerically, in text, or graphically (using drawing as input). We will spend time most class periods using this system to solve problems, derive equations, and cover the important concepts. Once we have covered a unit or two, we will give an RAA. This will consist of 10-20 questions delivered to your device. You will submit the answers yourself. Then, you will take the RAA again as a group. Your score will be the average of the two submissions. If you are not happy with your individual score, you may take a second RAA on a different day. We may also do a project or two. If so, part of the grade will be based on the project presentations.
(5) Projects - There will be 3 projects during the term.
Grades will be based as follows:
Book annotation: 25%
Homework reflection: 25%
Learning Catalytics Pre-Work: 5%
Readiness assurance assessments: 25%
Projects: 20%
You can learn more about each of the components of the course in the menu You can learn more about each of the components of the course in the menu
I have been teaching MSE 220 or similar versions since 1996. Two years ago I used an approach that is the result of years of research in the science of learning. It combines peer teaching and active learning methods that were first developed by Professor Eric Mazur at Harvard. In 1994, Mazur became, arguably, the first in the world to use audience response systems (now known as “clickers”) for education. He also wrote a book called "Peer Instruction" where he championed the idea that the best person to teach someone a concept was the person sitting next to them. I learned about this in 1996 and was the first faculty member to use a clicker system (wired TI-83 calculators and some software) in a lecture on the UM campus. I was also the first to reject it because the technology got in the way of learning while teaching a traditional lecture. It has taken me many years to realize that traditional lecture has little or no value in education. Three years ago I did an experiment in MSE 220 where I gave my traditional lecture on Mondays and Fridays but did not lecture on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays I had the students work on active learning and peer teaching activities for the entire 50 minute session. Then I tagged question on the exams that were based on the Wednesday preparation so that I could compare student performance to those exam questions that were based on the traditional preparation. The results were very interesting. Students performed 10-19 points better (the median score based on 100 points) on those questions that were based on the active learning/peer teaching pedagogy.
After seeing those results I have realized that I needed to find a very different approach to teaching. Eric Mazur also happens to work in the same research area as me - ultrafast laser solid interaction. I have known Eric for a long time and when I ran into him at the Materials Research Society meeting in Boston in November, 2012, we started talking about my most recent teaching experiment. He told me about his new approach to teaching where he has completely eliminated lectures as well as exams. The next day I visited Eric at Harvard and went to his class. It was amazing. When I returned to Michigan I wrote a proposal to try and develop a similar approach to teaching MSE 220 in Fall 2013. I have since visited Eric in February and went to two more of his classes and spent three days talking to his instructional staff. I also visited him in April to learn even more. The students who have been through this approach have all told me that they have never enjoyed a course more - and never worked harder. They actually like doing their homework.
My goal is simple. I want to inspire my students to want to learn and give them the opportunity to grasp concepts and the mindset needed to solve engineering problems that involve materials. Hence, this course is being offered in this new format. I am going to emulate Eric's class as much as possible and see if it will produce similar results in Materials Science and Engineering.
In-Class Work:
We will be using an advanced, bring your own device, clicker system called LearningCatalytics to deliver questions during class time. These questions will be focused on concepts and examples to build on what you have read. You will be expected to pay the LearningCatalytics fee, but it is very inexpensive, only $12 per student. We will use LearningCatalytics just about every session.
Homework:
The homework will not be graded, but you will compare your solutions with your team in class and write a better solution set as a group and then compare it to the solutions that I hand out. Then you will write a reflection piece about how hard you worked on the homework, what was easy, and what you still don't understand. You will also rate the effort of each of your group members.
Groups:
Teams of 5 will be formed three times during the term. That means that each person will interact with 12 different people during the term. We will be using a tool called CATME.org to form teams intelligently.
Projects:
We will have three open ended projects that will be based on the material we are covering in each third of the course. Each group will produce a whiteboard video, a poster, and a video (with people in it) to convey the results of their work. We will also use CATME.org to perform a peer review at the end of each project.
Grading:
Grading will be done by a variety of rubrics including;
(1) the quality, quantity, and timeliness of annotations to the text using Perusall.com,
(2) Written reflections about the homework,
(3) Learning Catalytics (LC) Pre-work: You will be given an LC module two days before class that will be similar to the problems we will be doing in class. It is critical for the peer instruction process that you attempt these on your own. We include many simple problems and expect that anyone who has done the reading will be able to answer at least 25% of the gradable problems correctly. Please try all of them, even the ones that are not gradable.
(4) Readiness Assurance Assessments (RAAs) of material covered in guided learning activities. These will be done using LearningCatalytics.com software that, as described above, will cost each student $12.00 for the term. Students will bring a wifi enabled device (laptop, iOS or Android smartphone or tablet) and questions will be posed and answered numerically, in text, or graphically (using drawing as input). We will spend time most class periods using this system to solve problems, derive equations, and cover the important concepts. Once we have covered a unit or two, we will give an RAA. This will consist of 10-20 questions delivered to your device. You will submit the answers yourself. Then, you will take the RAA again as a group. Your score will be the average of the two submissions. If you are not happy with your individual score, you may take a second RAA on a different day. We may also do a project or two. If so, part of the grade will be based on the project presentations.
(5) Projects - There will be 3 projects during the term.
Grades will be based as follows:
Book annotation: 25%
Homework reflection: 25%
Learning Catalytics Pre-Work: 5%
Readiness assurance assessments: 25%
Projects: 20%
You can learn more about each of the components of the course in the menu You can learn more about each of the components of the course in the menu
MSE 220 Fall 2015