Students Develop and Test Models in Combined Lecture/Lab setting with Next-Gen PET Curriculum

In a combined lecture and lab setting at Francis Marion University we've used the Next-Gen PET (Next Generation Physical Science and Everyday Thinking) curriculum with education majors. As they begin each new topic, students discuss their initial ideas, make predictions, and do experiments. They build a (theoretical) model to explain their observations. Students continue to experiment and refine their model with new information and peer review in the form of presenting those ideas to their classmates, answering questions, seeing other students' models and participating in class discussions to arrive at a class consensus. Eventually, student models converge to match the scientific models taught in textbooks. Thus, students not only learn the concepts we want them to, but also participate in a process that closely mirrors that of actual scientists developing new scientific understanding. The role of the instructor in this setting tends to be one of guiding students through experiments, asking questions about student models, and leading and mediating class discussions. This talk discusses our experience with the curriculum and our implementation of it in all of our physical science (for non-science majors) lab courses.