Clicker Workshops

Activities: Browsing University of Colorado

Science Education

Questions
Initiative
http://colorado.edu/sei
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Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
Overview Materials
These are several possible activities to expose participants to a wide For all activities:
variety of types of clicker questions as part of an introduction to Peer Handouts (below)
Instruction. Example Questions:
See workshop
materials at
Objectives http://STEMclickers.colo
The purpose of the Browsing Questions activities are to open rado.edu
participants eyes to the wide variety of possible uses of clicker/peer
For Gallery Walk
instruction questions, so that they may be able to gain a broad vision
Two Powerpoint
of how this tool might be used in their classroom. These activities
galleries of questions
also help ground the abstract pedagogy in concrete examples. organized by
pedagogical type
Activities Butcher paper,
whiteboard or
The workshop leader would choose one of the Browsing Questions chalkboard
activities below. Markers

1. Gallery Walk.
Prior to the workshop, the leader posts a variety of questions Time
around the room. Participants wander among the questions, 1. Gallery Walk: 20-30
discussing with one another. This is our favorite activity for min.
investigating questions. 2. Treasure Hunt: 20-30
Posting the questions around the room, instead of handing them min.
out, gets participants up out of their seats and breaks up the 3. Powerpoint: 10 min
workshop nicely. We format our questions on a single Powerpoint
slide, and print each on a single sheet of paper, for readability. We
post on a whiteboard or butcher paper, and include a marker, so
participants can leave comments.
You may simply choose to post a wide variety of questions, to
provide a broad array of examples. We have found it to be engaging
for participants to be presented with groups of 3-4 questions
organized together by pedagogical strategy, and they have to guess
what those questions have in common. Some groupings we have
used are (a) questions that use images in the answers, (b) conceptual
questions based on student difficulties, (c) opinion/surveys, (d)
predicting the outcome of an experiment, (e) true/false questions, (f)
reasoning is more important than the answer and (g) no one right
answer. The point of this activity isnt necessarily to guess what the
leader had in mind, but is an excuse to engage participants in the
questions; we find that having this goal of looking for themes helps
instructors step back from the content of the question and look
instead for the strategy.

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
Activities: Browsing Questions
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2. Treasure Hunt
Pass out a handout with a variety of example questions
on it. It seems best to keep the handout to two sides of a
page, or about 8-10 questions; it takes participants some
time to read and process each question. Typically they will
be able to get through 3-4 in 10 minutes time. In
multidisciplinary groups, provide questions from a variety of
disciplines. Ask them to work in groups to rate the questions
on a 4 point scale, with 1 being terrible and 4 being
terrific. In a workshop that focuses on question-writing,
this activity could follow some discussion of the features of
good questions. This activity has worked especially well with
K12 teachers.
This activity serves as a way to get participants to engage
with a variety of questions the actual ratings are not
important. The ensuing discussion where they defend their
ratings can be quite rich. Often participants will recognize
that sometimes a bad question in one context can be
good in another for example, depending on whether that
material was just covered, or if the instructor is trying to find
out what students already know about a topic.

3. Powerpoint
The workshop leader shows a variety of questions by
Powerpoint, and leads a group discussion of them. Note that
care must be taken with multidisciplinary groups to choose
questions that most of the audience can appreciate. We
have found that showing too many questions (more than 5
or 6) via Powerpoint rapidly becomes tedious. This is the
shortest of the activities, but the least engaging for
participants. It is also not possible to simultaneously view
more than one question in this fashion, leading to less
cognitive benefit due to lack of simultaneous contrast.

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 Gallery Walk
To Do
With your small group of nearest neighbors, read through the example Clicker
Questions that are posted around the room. Consider the following questions
together:

What would an instructor be trying to accomplish with such a question?

When in lecture might such a question be used?
Do you like this question? Why or why not?
What does each group of question have in common?

Write down any thoughts or observations on the butcher paper or whiteboard

next to the posted question(s). Below, jot down any ideas or observations
from this activity or the group discussion.

Notes

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 Treasure hunt

(multidisciplinary questions)

Which of these questions are gems and which ones are stinkers? With your buddy, rate each question on a scale of 1
(lousy) to 4 (fantastic). You might consider the questions content, difficulty, plausibility of distractors, clarity of writing, and
whether it addresses an important idea. Assess as many as you have time for.

1. ABUNDANT ELEMENT 2. BOILING

The most abundant element in the Earth is: Boiling occurs when the vapor pressure of a liquid
A. Hydrogen equals the atmospheric pressure. In the high
B. Oxygen altitude city of Denver, is the boiling point of water
C. Magnesium A) < 100C
D. Silicon B) 100 C
E. Iron C) > 100C

3. WEIGHT 4. BALL BOUNCE

When you lose 10 pounds, where does most of the Suppose you are on a cart, initially at rest on a
weight go? track with no friction. You throw balls at a partition
that is rigidly mounted on the front of the cart. If
A) Out of the body in secretions (urine, feces, the balls bounce straight back, as shown in the
and/or sweat) figure, is the cart put in motion?
B) Out of the body in air you exhale
C) The body uses it up as energy
D) Half out of the body in secretions and half A. Yes, left
used up as energy B. Yes, right
C. No
D. Dont know

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 5. APPRIZED 6. ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
The child apprized her father's authority and An example of economic independence is
behaved herself in church. (A) South Africans mining their gold and diamond
Apprized means resources
(B) the government of France issuing new currency
A. Appreciated (C) Japan selling technological goods to buy
B. Compromised Middle Eastern oil
C. Defied (D) An Indian subsistence farmer waiting for the
D. Noted rains to water his crops

7. ROCK CYCLE 8. HISTORIC DOCUMENT

The graph below illustrates how the temperature
changed with time for part of the rock cycle. Which
of the following processes is best represented by
the graph?
A. sediment is lithified to form sedimentary rock
B. sedimentary rocks are converted to
metamorphic rocks
C. metamorphic rocks are uplifted to Earth's
surface
D. magma cools to form plutonic igneous rock
E. sedimentary rock is converted to magma
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble.
This paragraph appears in which historic
document?
A. The Declaration of Independence
B. The Freedom of Information Act
C. The Mayflower Compact
D. The Magna Carta
E. The U. S. Constitution

9. LEAH AND SUE

If Leah is 6 years older than Sue, and John is 5
years older than Leah, and the total of their ages is
41. How old is Sue?
A. 8
B. 10
C. 14
D. 19
E. 21

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 10. THUNDERSTORM 11. ETHICS
About how close is a thunderstorm if you see If you were a judge, how would you assess the
lightening flash and hear a clash of thunder after responsibility of the U.S. Government, for what
counting up to 6 seconds? (the speed of sound is happened in the world between 1933 and 1945?
344 m/s) A. Not responsible
A. 0 km B. Minimally responsible
B. 1 km C. Responsible
C. 2 km D. Very responsible
D. 6 km
E. None of these

12. RUNOFF
When during the year is runoff in creeks in the Front Range of Colorado likely to be consistently the
highest (over periods of weeks)?
A In the winter after large snowfalls
B) In the spring when snow melts
C) In the summer after rainshowers
D) In the fall

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 Treasure Hunt

(science questions only)

Which of these questions are gems and which ones are stinkers? With your buddy, rate each question on a scale of 1
(lousy) to 4 (fantastic). You might consider the questions content, difficulty, plausibility of distractors, clarity of writing, and
whether it addresses an important idea. Assess as many as you have time for.

1. ABUNDANT ELEMENT 2. BOILING

The most abundant element in the Earth is: Boiling occurs when the vapor pressure of a liquid
A. Hydrogen equals the atmospheric pressure. In the high
B. Oxygen altitude city of Denver, is the boiling point of water
C. Magnesium D) < 100C
D. Silicon E) 100 C
E. Iron F) > 100C

3. WEIGHT 4. BALL BOUNCE

When you lose 10 pounds, where does most of the Suppose you are on a cart, initially at rest on a
weight go? track with no friction. You throw balls at a partition
that is rigidly mounted on the front of the cart. If
E) Out of the body in secretions (urine, feces, the balls bounce straight back, as shown in the
and/or sweat) figure, is the cart put in motion?
F) Out of the body in air you exhale
G) The body uses it up as energy
H) Half out of the body in secretions and half E. Yes, left
used up as energy F. Yes, right
G. No
H. Dont know

5. CONDUCTIVITY OF ACID SOLUTION 6. ALIVE?

Show students a demonstration that a lightbulb Which of the following are alive? (May be more
will light when a current is run through a weak acid than one)
solution. A) Seed
If the acid solution is increased to 100% strength, B) Leaf on a tree
what will happen to the brightness of the lightbulb? C) A leaf that has just fallen
A) Brighter D) A tree in spring (no leaves)

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 B) Dimmer E) A tree in summer (lots of leaves)
C) Completely dark F) A tree in fall (leaves not green)
D) Dont know. G) A tree in winter.

7. ROCK CYCLE 8. GLOBAL WARMING

The graph below illustrates how the temperature
changed with time for part of the rock cycle. Which Students watch some clips of the Day After
of the following processes is best represented by Tomorrow.
the graph?
Global warming could lead to the shutdown of the
North Atlantics ocean circulation pattern causing
global cooling
A) Strongly agree
B) Moderately agree
C) Moderately disagree
D) Disagree
F. sediment is lithified to form sedimentary rock
G. sedimentary rocks are converted to 9. LEAH AND SUE
metamorphic rocks If Leah is 6 years older than Sue, and John is 5
H. metamorphic rocks are uplifted to Earth's years older than Leah, and the total of their ages is
surface 41. How old is Sue?
I. magma cools to form plutonic igneous rock A. 8
J. sedimentary rock is converted to magma B. 10
C. 14
D. 19
E. 21

10. THUNDERSTORM 11. IONIC RADIUS

About how close is a thunderstorm if you see
lightening flash and hear a clash of thunder after Which of the following has the largest radius?
counting up to 6 seconds? (the speed of sound is A) Ca2+
344 m/s) B) K+
F. 0 km C) Ar
G. 1 km D) Cl-
H. 2 km E) S2-
I. 6 km
J. None of these

12. RUNOFF
When during the year is runoff in creeks in the Front Range of Colorado likely to be consistently the
highest (over periods of weeks)?

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei
 A In the winter after large snowfalls
B) In the spring when snow melts
C) In the summer after rainshowers
D) In the fall

Browsing Questions Courtesy of the Science Education Initiative at the University of Colorado;
http://colorado.edu/sei