Monday, April 23, 2012

Second Session Shadowing SSS


Introduction:

The second shadowing session was a physics lab course that held in the Metropolia university. Mr. Max Poppius was the professor of the class. It was a typical lab classroom where there are some tables and many of physics tools. Also there were some computers loaded with programs to be used in the lab experiments.

My personal reflection:

Also this session was a social workshop type of class where students are divided into groups. Each group consists of about three to four students. They have to finish ten experiments during the semester. So they come to the lab in a set time where the professor attends also in case they need help with their experiments. The professor role in this type of class is to work as an assistant who provides help when ever is needed. The professor is considered to be as one of the students since he doesn’t have to give any type of lesson in a behavioral way.

The interesting thing about this session was the students have different physics majors, yet they have to do the same experiments in the lab. So we as a group discussed this matter with the professor who was very cooperative and helpful. He provided us with a very nice explanation and he also gave his opinion about this type of class. Normally, with each class of physics there is a lab to test some experiments, but what happened in the Metropolia University as the professor told us there is no labs for any course of the physics majors. But there is one complete and separate class which our group attended called Physics lab. This why the student's majors where different from one to another.

The professor told us that he prefer s the old normal way where there is a lab for each different major of physics. Also he prefers a pass or fail kind of grading, but he has to give a grade of 1 to 5. He gave an explanation for this kind of course division by the university. They think that the lab experiments if they not completed on time may affect the students' grade, so the university decided to make a separate course for all majors' experiments in different course which is called as mention above Physics lab.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting to hear, what you tell about the reorganization of physics labs (from labs in different physics courses to one separate lab course). What do you think, which way of organizing would be more effective when it comes to learning?

    - Irmeli

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  2. I believe that having all different majors in one physics lab is kind of confusion. It means that students may misunderstand the main objective of their basic major. So I agree with the professor of the session that the old technique is better.

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