Ready, Set, React! Getting the most out of peer instruction with clickers

READY, SET, REACT!
As we get settled, practice entering a word using your
iclicker2:
What 3-letter word
can you make from the letters
A, B, C, D, E?

click A – E button, to advance to 2nd character,
click A – E button, to advance to 3rd character,
click A – E button, SEND to submit answer.

Clickers 2012, Chicago, October 24-25, 2012

READY, SET, REACT!
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF
PEER INSTRUCTION WITH
CLICKERS
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca
#clickers2012
Cynthia Heiner
Department of Physics
Free University of Berlin, Germany
cynthia.heiner@fu-berlin.de
Clickers 2012, Chicago, October 24-25, 2012

Typical Peer Instruction
Episode poses a conceptually-challenging
1. Instructor
multiple-choice question.

2. Students think about question on their own.

3. Students vote for an answer using clickers,
coloured cards, ABCD voting cards,...

4. The instructor reacts, based on the
distribution of votes.

3 Clickers 2012: Ready, Set, React!

In effective peer instruction
 students teach each other immediately,
students learn
while they may still hold or remember
and practice
their novice misconceptions
how to
 students discuss the concepts in theirthink, commu
own language nicate like
experts
 the instructor finds out what the students know
(and don’t know) and reacts


Effective peer instruction
requires key
1. identifying
concepts, misconceptions before
class
2. creating multiple-choice questions that
require deeper thinking and learning

3. facilitating peer instruction episodes during
that spark student discussion class
4. resolving the misconceptions


Example Questions

Don’t concentrate only on the content
of the example questions.
Watch the “choreography”, too.


Clicker question
The amplitude and frequency A)
of 4 light waves are shown.
The waves are representative B)
of one instant in time and are
all travelling in vacuum. Which
wave travels the fastest? C)

D)

E) all the same speed

Clicker question
X Are features X and
Y ridges or valleys?
A) X=ridge, Y=valle
y
B) X=valley, Y=ridg
e
Y
C) both are ridges
D) both are valleys


Clicker question
Three blocks are in a tank of water. Rank the
densities of the blocks and the water from least
dense to
most dense. (Enter a 4-letter like ABCD and click
SEND) C
A
D
(water)
B


Clicker choreography
To be effective, the instructor needs to run the peer
instruction in a way that gives students sufficient
time to think about, discuss and resolve the
concepts.

We want students to participate without ever
having to stop and think, “What am I supposed to
do now?”


1. Present the question. Don’t read it aloud.

Reasons for not reading the question aloud:
• your voice may give away key features or
even the answer
• you might read the question you hoped to
ask, not the words that are actually there
• the students are not listening anyway –
they’re trying to read it themselves and your
voice may, in fact, distract them


2. “Please answer this on your own.”

Goals of the first, solo vote:
• get the students to commit to a choice in their own
minds
• get the students to commit to a choice so they’ll be
curious about the answer
• get the students prepared to have a discussion
with their peers, if necessary
If they discuss the question right way:
• students are making choices based on someone
else’s reasoning
• those students cannot contribute to the peer
instruction as they have no ideas of their own

2. “Please answer this on your own.”

Students may be reluctant to quietly think on
their own. After all, they have a better chance of
picking the right choice after talking to their
friends.

If you’re going to impose a certain behaviour on
the students, getting their “buy-in” is critical.
Explain to them why the solo vote is so
important. Explain it to them early in the term
and remind them when they start drifting to
immediate discussions.
www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html

3. Don’t start the i>clicker poll. Instead give the
students sufficient time to make a choice. What
is sufficient?

• Turn to the screen, read and answer the
question as if you are one of your students.
• Another possibility: keep facing the
class, helping those with confused stares.
• Another possibility: model how to think about the
question by “acting it out.”
• When you notice students picking up their
clickers and getting restless, they are prepared
to vote.

4. When you have made a choice or when you
see the class getting restless, ask the
students, “Do you need more time?”
If many students are not ready to vote, they will
not have committed to a choice and will be
unprepared to discuss the question.
Some students may be uncomfortable asking for
more time. Make it clear, from the first class, that
you’ll honour the request with no repercussions.

5. “Yes!” Give them a few more seconds.
“[silence]” Ask them to prepare to vote.

6. “Please vote.”

If you’ve given them sufficient time to commit to
a choice, the voting should take very little time.

Another option: watch the number of votes and
when most of the votes are in say, “Can I have
your final answers, please?”

Don’t wait for every last student to vote. Some
may be choosing not to vote.


7. Check distribution of votes on the i>clicker
receiver.
Don’t show the histogram to the class (yet):
• if there is a popular choice, students are apt
to choose it in a 2nd vote, without reasoning
why.
• a student who picked an unpopular choice is
unlikely to participate in peer or class
discussion
You can motivate students without showing the
histogram, e.g., by saying “there seem to be two
popular answers”
The students’ behaviours will change when they
17
see the histogram, probably not for the right
Clickers 2012: Ready, Set, React!

8. Depending on the distribution of
votes, proceed.
We’ll discuss reacting to various distribution
scenarios in a few moments.


9. At the end, confirm the answer(s) and continue
with the class.
Even if more than 80–90% of the students have
picked the correct choice, some students are still
not sure why that choice is correct.

Briefly confirm the correct choice:
• explain why the correct choice is correct
• explain why popular distractors are incorrect
• allows those who chose the correct answer
to make sure they had the correct reasoning


Reacting to their votes
You don’t know what’s going to happen but you can
anticipate and prepare yourself for the likely outcomes.

When you know the
first-vote distribution
(but they don’t) you
have lots of options.

This is where you
show your “agility.”


What do you think you should do
with this first-vote distribution?

A B C D E

A. “Turn to your neighbours and convince them
you’re right”
B. move on – everyone got it
C. confirm correct answer and move on
D. “Can someone who answered C tell us why they
made that choice?”
E. other


A B C D E
A. “Turn to your neighbours and convince them
you’re right”
B. confirm correct answer and move on
C. “Can someone who answered B tell us why they
made that choice?”
D. show the vote distribution
E. other



A B C D E


(C is not the correct answer)
A B C D E


What do you think you should do if
this is the second-vote distribution?

A B C D E


Reacting to their votes
When you know the first-vote distribution (but they
don’t) there are many options. You can
 confirm and move on
 ask the students to discuss with their peers
 ask students to advocate for the choices they
made
 check that the question made sense
 eliminate one or more choices before re-
voting
 and more...
26
This is where you show your agility.

Resources
www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm
links to collections of peer instruction questions

peerinstruction4cs.org
Beth Simon and Cynthia Lee, UCSD
excellent guide to what to do before term, on the first day, how to
get student buy-in, and more.

CWSEI Eric Mazur Derek Bruff Doug Duncan
(1996) (2009) (2004, 2005)

Clickers 2012: Ready, Set, React! 28

PRACTICE PEER
INSTRUCTION
QUESTIONS:
PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY,
BIOLOGY

Clicker question
A ball is rolling C
around the B D
inside of a A E
circular track.
The ball leaves
the track at
point P. P

Which path
does the ball
follow? (Mazur)

Clicker question
Suppose you pass white light through a prism and all of
the colours of the spectrum are projected on a screen.
If you then put a red filter over your eye and look at the
spectrum, what colours do you see?

A) you see mostly red light; the blue and green
disappears
B) you see mostly blue light; the other colours
disappear
C) all of the colours turn red

(Duncan)

Clicker question
If this is the phase of the Moon when it
rises:

what is the phase of the Moon 12 hours
later?
A B C

D E

(Prather)

Clicker question
Susan throws a ball straight up into the air. It goes up
and then falls back into her hand 2 seconds later.

Draw a graph showing the velocity of the ball from the
moment it leaves her hand until she catches it again.

velocity

time
0 2 sec

(UBC CWSEI)

Which one is the closest match to your graph?

velocity velocity

A B
time time
0 2 sec 0 2 sec

velocity velocity

C D
time time
0 2 sec 0 2 sec

33
E) some other graph (UBC CWSEI)

Clicker question
John is walking to school. This graph shows his position
as a function of time. When is John moving with the
greatest velocity?
position

time
A B C D E (UBC CWSEI)

Clicker question
Which of the following is an incorrect step when using
the substitution method to evaluate the definite
integral 4
2 3
x 1 x dx
0

3 1 4
A) u 1 x C) u du
3 0

du 2
B) x dx D) none of the above
3
(Bruff)

Clicker question
To minimize the work you do getting a heavy bag
of groceries from the first floor to the second floor
of a building, you should

A. carry the bag up the stairs
B. carry the bag up in an elevator
C. put the bag on the floor of an elevator, ride up
with it, and then pick up the bag again
D. carry the bag up a ramp
E. put the bag in a cart and push it up a ramp
(Chasteen)

Clicker question
For the data set displayed in the following
histogram, which would be larger, the mean or the
median?

A) mean
B) median
37 C) can’t Ready, from the given mathquest.carroll.edu/resources.html)
Clickers 2012: tell Set, React! (Peck, histogram

Clicker question
An ice cube is floating in a glass of
water that is filled entirely to the brim.
As the ice cube melts, the water level
will

A) stay the same, remain at the brim.
B) rise, causing the water to spill.
C) fall to a level below the brim.
D) cannot say without knowing the density of ice.

(UBC CWSEI)

Question
If you lower a 1.5 kg mass on a string
into a
5 kg beaker filled with water, what
happens to the reading on the scale?

A) increases to 6.5 kg
B) increases to a value < 6.5 kg
C) increases to a value > 6.5 kg
D) stay the same

(UBC CWSEI)

Demo: prediction
A cup filled with water has a hole in the side through which
the liquid is flowing out. If the cup is dropped for a
height, what will happen to the water flowing from the cup?

A. It will keep on coming out, flowing the same
as before

B. It will keep coming out, but it will flow a bit
slower than before

C. It will keep coming out, but start to flow
upwards

D. It will keep coming out, flowing horizontally
with the falling cup

40 E. Clickers 2012: Ready, Set, React!
It will stop flowing (Heiner)

Clicker Question
Consider a block of wood that has varying dimensions.
Does the pressure exerted on the table from the block
depend on the blocks position? If so, which way
produces the greatest pressure? If not, why not?

A) B) C)

D) The block of wood has the same density, so it doesn’t
matter which way it is positioned.
E) The block of wood has the same mass, so it doesn’t
matter which way it is positioned. (Heiner)

The molecules making up the dry mass of
wood that forms during the growth of a tree
largely come from

a) sunlight.
b) the air.
c) the seed.
d) the soil.

Question credit: Bill Wood

The figure shows a tRNA molecule
that recognizes and binds a specific
amino acid. Which codon on the
mRNA strand codes for the amino
acid?

A) UGG
B) GUG
C) GUA
D) UUC
E) CAU

Question credit: Pearson Education, Inc.

Clicker Question

How many of the following statements about selection are true?

Plants: During their lifetime, plants may experience many
different sources of selection
Insects: Insects often experience a different type of
selection as larvae than as adults
Birds: Birds can experience different directions of
selection in different years
Mammals: Selection in mammals always operates more
strongly on survival than on reproduction

A) 0 B) 1 C) 2 D) 3 E) 4

Question
Suppose that in the tree below new data were
uncovered indicating that taxon E is sister to a
group consisting of taxa D and F. Draw the new
phylogeny.


Which one is the closest match to your phylogeny?
 Answer A

a) b)

 Answer B

c) d) Some other
phylogeny C
 Answer


PO2 in the lungs is typically about 100 mm Hg, while PO2 in
resting muscles is about 40 mm Hg. Hemoglobin leaving the
lungs is nearly saturated with O2. When that fully oxygenated
hemoglobin arrives in capillaries near muscle tissue at
rest, what percent of its O2 is released?
100

O2 saturation of hemoglobin (%)
A. 10% 80
B. 15%
60
C. 30%
D. 70% 40
E. 85%
20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
PO2(mm Hg)
Question credit: Pearson Education, Inc.

Question
Which point on the phylogenetic tree
represents the closest relative of the frog?

A
B E

D
C


Question
Which experiment will produce 18O2?

Experiment 1:
H218O + CO2

A. experiment 1
B. experiment 2
Experiment 2:
C. both experiments
H2O +C18O2
D. neither

Question
Fill in the blanks. All the somatic cells in your
body contain ______ DNA sequences and
______ proteins.

A. The same DNA sequences, the same
proteins.
B. Different DNA sequences, different proteins.
C. The same DNA sequences, different proteins.
D. Different DNA sequences, the same proteins.
Question credit: CWSEI, SEI

Suppose a plant has a photosynthetic pigment
that makes the leaves appear to be reddish
yellow. Which wavelengths of visible light are
being absorbed by this pigment?

A) red and yellow
B) blue and violet
C) green and yellow
D) blue, green, and red
E) green, blue, and yellow


Question
One of the somatic (i.e., not gametes) cells
represented below is diploid. Which one?

A. B.

C.

Question credit: Carol Pollock

Question
If an organism makes an abnormal protein,
the error that led to this abnormality most
likely originated

A. during the replication of the corresponding
gene
B. during transcription of the corresponding
gene to make the corresponding mRNA
C. during translation of the corresponding
mRNA to make the protein


Clicker Question
Draw a cell’s plasma membrane using circles and
lines to represent the two “ends” of the
phospholipids that comprise the membrane.
Indicate the inside and outside of the cell with
respect to the membrane.

example phospholipid

Which of the following illustrations looks
most like your own drawing?

A. Outsid
e of
Inside
of cell C. Outsid
e of
Inside
of cell
cell cell

B. Outsid
e of
Inside
of cell
D. Outsid
e of
Inside
of cell
cell cell

E. My drawing looks different

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