Pedagogy in Action > Library > Teaching with Interactive Demonstrations

Teaching with Interactive Demonstrations

This resource received an Accept or Accept with minor revisions rating from a Panel Peer Review process

These materials were reviewed using face-to-face NSF-style review panel of geoscience and geoscience education experts to review groups of resources addressing a single theme. Panelists wrote reviews that addressed the criteria:

  1. scientific accuracy and currency
  2. usability and
  3. pedagogical effectiveness
Reviewers rated the resources:
  1. Accept
  2. Accept with minor revisions
  3. Accept with major revisions, or
  4. Reject.
They also singled out those resources they considered particularly exemplary, which are given a gold star rating.

Following the panel meetings, the conveners wrote summaries of the panel discussion for each resource; these were transmitted to the creator, along with anonymous versions of the reviews. Relatively few resources were accepted as is. In most cases, the majority of the resources were either designated as 1) Reject or 2) Accept with major revisions. Resources were most often rejected for their lack of completeness to be used in a classroom or they contained scientific inaccuracies.


This material was originally created for Starting Point:Introductory Geology
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Created by Dorothy Merritts, Robert Walter (Franklin & Marshall College) and Bob MacKay (Clark College)

instructor leading interactive lecture demonstration on water quality using samples of drinkingn water
Interactive demonstrations strenghten students' abilities to observe, and stimulate questions and discussions. A demonstration can be used in its simplest form as a show-and-tell experience to enhance a lecture, or it can be developed as an effective hands-on, inquiry-based learning opportunity in a class or lab. Interactive demonstrations can also be used in classes of all sizes, as projection systems can make demonstrations visible to students in the backs of large classrooms.
Dave Bice

What is an Interactive Demonstration?

Interactive Demonstrations are physical or conceptual models that replicate part of a system of interest. Often they are constructed out of material or objects that are familiar to students in their everyday lives. It's always fun for students to see something familiar to them used in an unique and unexpected way.

For example, Dave Bice at Penn State uses the "friction rock" to discuss ideas related to fault slip and earthquakes (see the picture at right). The demonstration consists of a rock attached to a crank with a rope. The rock sits atop sandpaper and as the crank is turned, the pull on the rock increases until it overcomes the friction and the rock slides or jumps along the sandpaper. (See also Jeffrey Barker's Earthquake Machine (more info) .)


Why Use Interactive Demonstrations

Interactive Demonstrations have proven to be very useful in addressing student's misconceptions as well as providing stimulating hands-on inquiry into simple parts of complex systems. Learn more...


How to Use Interactive Demonstrations in Class

Like any type of in-class activity, Interactive Demonstrations require planning and setup in order to live up to their potential to improve student learning. Learn more...


Geoscience Demonstration Examples

The example collection contains a number of tested demonstrations for a geoscience classroom, with complete lists of materials, instructions, tips on doing the demonstration, ideas for associated class discussions, photos, and video clips.

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