The Demonstration Laboratory

This source contains a collection of physics demonstrations tailored for university classroom lectures. The book is structured in accord with the so-called Physics Instructional Resource Association (PIRA).

Important

Please note that this resource is still work in progress. However, all documented demos have been copied from the previous website de-monstrare.nl into this resource. They are accessible in the form of a hyperlink to the previous website de-monstrare.nl. Our new demos will also include media content such as video recordings of the individual demos.

How we Work

We consider our Demonstration Room as a shop and we sell our demonstrations for free. We seduce professors to use our facilities and expertise. We need to seduce them because professors are not familiar with all the ideas available and they certainly have no time to investigate all the possibilities that exist.

1. we have many demos in stock

2. we know the physics

3. we know about didactics

4. we have theatrical experience

5. we have experience in designing demonstrations and carrying them into effect

6. we know the literature and the ideas that are proposed worldwide and we keep up to date

7. we know what is commercially available

Fig. 2 Ron Haaksman

How to Demonstrate

Note

In the matter of physics, the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see.

Albert Einstein

De monstrare = Demonstrate “De” has the meaning of: intensification “monstrare” = to show

From the Latin version of this verb it can be seen that we aim to show phenomena in an intensified way. Ron is staff of the demonstration facility and his profession is to demonstrate.

We propose demonstrations to the professors and in consultation with them we select what will be shown. In developing, designing, and preparing the demonstrations we also make choices about how to show it effectively to our students. Finally we show the demonstrations during the lecture when it is the appropriate moment so it fits in with the matter taught during that lecture.

Currently (2023) we present around 300 demonstrations every year and this number is still increasing, because more professors see and experience the benefits of our services. Moreover also other faculties of our Technical University Delft and teachers from outside our university found their way to our demonstration facility. Our Demonstration Room is booming business!

Demonstrations

“How to demonstrate” means how to do it as effective as possible and with “effective” we mean that students really learn from the presented demonstrations. Demonstrations are commonly believed to help students learn science and to stimulate their interest. The latter objective is generally achieved: studies show that demonstrations are among students’ favorite elements of a course. But research on the first objective also shows that traditional demonstrations do not effectively help students grasp the underlying scientific concepts or correct their misconceptions, while teachers often think the opposite. Here we refer to two studies:

• “Why may students fail to learn from demonstrations?” [Roth et al., 1997]

• “Classroom demonstrations: Learning tools or entertainment?” [Crouch et al., 2004]

These studies show that students who passively observe demonstrations understand the underlying concepts no better than students who do not see the demonstration at all! Learning is enhanced, however, by increasing student engagement. The key to an effective demonstration is interaction with the audience. Students who predict the demonstration outcome before seeing it, display significant greater understanding [Crouch et al., 2004].

Observe:

1. students observe the demonstration.

2. hear the instructor’s explanation.

Predict:

1. students record their prediction (without discussion)

2. observe the demonstration.

3. hear the instructor’s explanation.

Discuss:

1. students record their prediction (without discussion)

2. observe the demonstration.

3. discuss it with fellow students

4. hear the instructor’s explanation.

At our department we apply as much as possible the predict-method. (The discuss-method needs too much time in our way of demonstrating). In the large lecture halls we question the prediction of the students before showing the demonstration. After a couple of minutes a multiple choice prediction is then presented to them. Then we show the demonstration and a short discussion follows.

References

CFCM04(1,2)

Catherine Crouch, Adam P Fagen, J Paul Callan, and Eric Mazur. Classroom demonstrations: learning tools or entertainment? American journal of physics, 72(6):835–838, 2004.

RMLBoutonne97

Wolff-Michael Roth, Campbell J McRobbie, Keith B Lucas, and Sylvie Boutonné. Why may students fail to learn from demonstrations? a social practice perspective on learning in physics. Journal of Research in Science Teaching: The Official Journal of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 34(5):509–533, 1997.