Modern Physics: Clicker Questions

What is a Clicker Question?

Clicker questions are not intended to be part of the homework. They are intended to be used in class, in mid-lecture.

For instance, early in your first lecture in the relativity unit, you flash the following screen on a slide.

Sample Quick Check image

You can poll the students using Clickers, or use software such as Poll Everywhere that lets them answer on their phones, or just have them hold up sheets of paper with letters on them. If a number of students get the wrong answer, you might give them 1-3 minutes to discuss and then vote again before showing them the correct answer.

The right answer is always on the next slide.

Many studies show that if you insert 2 or 3 such quick breaks into a 50-minute lecture, student understanding and retention improve significantly. Another advantage, if you use the clickers, is that you sometimes discover that the class is really not with you. That's unfortunate, but it's better to know!

The files below contain two types of clicker questions.

Downloadable Files

Clicker questions are available in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) and PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint) formats. You can download them one chapter at a time, or download a Zip file containing all of them.
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