The primary goal of the Student-Centered Activities for Large Enrollment University Physics (SCALE-UP) Project is to determine the best way to establish a highly collaborative, hands-on, computer-rich, interactive learning environment in large-enrollment physics courses. SCALE-UP classes have been implemented at ten colleges and universities including North Carolina State University, University of Central Florida, University of Alabama, American University, Coastal Carolina University, MIT, University of New Hampshire, Rochester Institute of Technology, Wake Tech Community College and Western Kentucky University.
We have found a way to fold together lecture and lab with multiple instructors to provide an effective, yet economical, approach. We believe the SCALE-UP Project has the potential to radically change the way physics is taught at large colleges and universities. The pedagogical techniques and classroom management approaches we design and disseminate should be general enough to encourage similar reforms in other science, engineering, and mathematics classes at other institutions
Traditionally, in large lectures, you do what is possible to do in front of 500 people, not because it’s what you should do. Now we’re asking the question: What do we really want our students to learn about electricity and magnetism?
Peter Dourmashkin (MIT SCALE-UP Physics Instructor)