Ready, Set, React! Getting the most out of peer instruction with clickers

Ready, Set, React!
Getting the most out of peer
instruction with clickers
Peter Newbury
Center for Teaching Development,
University of California, San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca

Cynthia Heiner
Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative,
University of British Columbia
cynthia.heiner@gmail.com

Typical Peer Instruction Episode
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.

2. Students think about question on their own.

3. Students vote for an answer using clickers,
coloured cards, ABCD voting cards,...

4. The instructor reacts, based on the
distribution of votes. (We’ll be
discussing different reactions today.)
Ready, Set, React! 2

Peer Instruction
In effective peer instruction,
• students teach each other
immediately, while they may still students learn
hold or remember their novice and practice
misconceptions how to think,
communicate
• students discuss the concepts in
like scientists
their own language
• the instructor finds out what the students know
(and don’t know) and reacts


Peer Instruction
Effective peer instruction requires
1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions
before
2. creating multiple-choice questions that class
require deeper thinking and learning
3. facilitating peer instruction episodes that
spark student discussion during
class
4. resolving the misconceptions


Example Questions

Don’t concentrate only on the content
of the example questions.
Watch the “choreography”, too.


Clicker question
The amplitude and frequency A)
of 4 light waves are shown.
The waves are representative B)
of one instant in time and are
all travelling in vacuum. Which
wave travels the fastest? C)

D)

E) all the same speed

Clicker question
X Are features X and Y
ridges or valleys?
A) X=ridge, Y=valley
B) X=valley, Y=ridge
C) both are ridges
Y D) both are valleys


Clicker choreography
To be effective, the instructor needs to run the peer
instruction in a way that gives students sufficient time
to think about, discuss and resolve the concepts.

We want students to participate without ever having to
stop and think, “What am I supposed to do now?”


1. Present the question. Don’t read it aloud.

Reasons for not reading the question aloud:
• your voice may give away key features or even
the answer
• you might read the question you hoped to ask,
not the words that are actually there
• the students are not listening anyway – they’re
trying to read it themselves and your voice may,
in fact, distract them


2. “Please answer this on your own.”

Goals of the first, solo vote:
• get the students to commit to a choice in their
own minds
• get the students to commit to a choice so they’ll
be curious about the answer
• get the students prepared to have a discussion
with their peers, if necessary
If they discuss the question right way:
• students are making choices based on someone
else’s reasoning
• those students cannot contribute to the peer
instruction as they have no ideas of their own

2. “Please answer this on your own.”

Students may be reluctant to quietly think on their
own. After all, they have a better chance of picking
the right choice after talking to their friends.

If you’re going to impose a certain behaviour on the
students, getting their “buy-in” is critical. Explain to
them why the solo vote is so important. Explain it to
them early in the term and remind them when they
start drifting to immediate discussions.

www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html


3. Don’t start the i>clicker poll. Instead give the
students sufficient time to make a choice. What is
sufficient?

• Turn to the screen, read and answer the question as
if you are one of your students.
• Another possibility: keep facing the class, helping
those with confused stares.
• Another possibility: model how to think about the
question by “acting it out.”
• When you notice students picking up their clickers
and getting restless, they are prepared to vote.


4. When you have made a choice or when you see the
class getting restless, ask the students, “Do you
need more time?”
If many students are not ready to vote, they will not
have committed to a choice and will be unprepared
to discuss the question.
Some students may be uncomfortable asking for
more time. Make it clear, from the first class, that
you’ll honour the request with no repercussions to
the student who asked.

5. “Yes!” Give them a few more seconds.
“*silence+” Ask them to prepare to vote.

6. “Please vote.”

If you’ve given them sufficient time to commit to a
choice, the voting should take very little time.

Another option: watch the number of votes and
when most of the votes are in say, “Can I have your
final answers, please?”

Don’t wait for every last student to vote. Some may
be choosing not to vote.


7. Check distribution of votes on the i>clicker receiver.

Don’t show the histogram to the class (yet):
• if there is a popular choice, students are apt to
choose it in a 2nd vote, without reasoning why.
• a student who picked an unpopular choice is
unlikely to participate in peer or class discussion
You can motivate students without showing the
histogram, e.g., by saying “there seem to be two
popular answers”
The students’ behaviours will change when they see
the histogram, probably not for the right reasons.


8. Depending on the distribution of votes, proceed.

We’ll discuss reacting to various distribution scenarios
in a few moments.


9. At the end, confirm the answer(s) and continue
with the class.
Even if more than 80–90% of the students have
picked the correct choice, some students are still not
sure why that choice is correct.

Briefly confirm the correct choice:
• explain why the correct choice is correct
• explain why popular distractors are incorrect
• allows those who chose the correct answer to
make sure they had the correct reasoning


Reacting to their votes
You don’t know what’s going to happen but you can
anticipate and prepare yourself for the likely outcomes.

When you know the
first-vote distribution
(but they don’t) you
have lots of options.

This is where you
show your “agility.”


What do you think you should do
with this first-vote distribution?
(C is the correct answer)
A B C D E

A) “Turn to your neighbours and convince them
you’re right”
B) move on – everyone got it
C) confirm correct answer and move on
D) “Can someone who answered C tell us why they
made that choice?”
E) other


A B C D E
A) “Turn to your neighbours and convince them
you’re right”
B) confirm correct answer and move on
C) “Can someone who answered B tell us why they
made that choice?”
D) “Would someone like to explain why they picked the
answer they did?”
E) other


A B C D E


(C is not the correct answer)
A B C D E


What do you think you should do if
this is the second-vote distribution?

A B C D E


Reacting to their votes
When you know the first-vote distribution (but they
don’t) there are many options. You can
• confirm and move on
• ask the students to discuss with their peers
• ask students to advocate for the choices they made
• check that the question made sense
• eliminate one or more choices before re-voting
• and more...

This is where you show your “agility”.

Resources
www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm
(with links to collections of peer instruction questions)

peerinstruction4cs.org
Beth Simon and Cynthia Lee, UCSD
(excellent guide to what to do before term, on the first day, how to get
student buy-in, and more.)

CWSEI Eric Mazur Derek Bruff Doug Duncan
(1996) (2009) (2004, 2005)

Practice peer instruction questions:
Physics, Astronomy, Biology

Clicker question
A ball is rolling C
around the B D
inside of a A E
circular track.
The ball leaves
the track at
point P. P

Which path does
the ball follow?
(Mazur)

Clicker question
Suppose you pass white light through a prism and all of
the colours of the spectrum are projected on a screen.
If you then put a red filter over your eye and look at the
spectrum, what colours do you see?

A) you see mostly red light; the blue and green
disappears
B) you see mostly blue light; the other colours
disappear
C) all of the colours turn red

(Duncan)

Clicker question
If this is the phase of the Moon when it rises:

what is the phase of the Moon 12 hours later?

A B C

D E

(Prather)

Clicker question
Susan throws a ball straight up into the air. It goes up
and then falls back into her hand 2 seconds later.

Draw a graph showing the velocity of the ball from the
moment it leaves her hand until she catches it again.

velocity

time
0 2 sec

(UBC CWSEI)

Which one is the closest match to your graph?

velocity velocity

A B
time time
0 2 sec 0 2 sec

velocity velocity

C D
time time
0 2 sec 0 2 sec

(UBC CWSEI)
Ready, Set, React!
E) some other graph 31

Clicker question
John is walking to school. This graph shows his position
as a function of time. When is John moving with the
greatest velocity?
position

time
A B C D E (UBC CWSEI)

Clicker question
Which of the following is an incorrect step when using
the substitution method to evaluate the definite
integral 4
2 3
x 1 x dx
0

3 1 4
A) u 1 x C) u du
3 0

du 2
B) x dx D) none of the above
3
(Bruff)

Clicker question
To minimize the work you do getting a heavy bag of
groceries from the first floor to the second floor of a
building, you should

A. carry the bag up the stairs
B. carry the bag up in an elevator
C. put the bag on the floor of an elevator, ride up with
it, and then pick up the bag again
D. carry the bag up a ramp
E. put the bag in a cart and push it up a ramp
(Chasteen)

Clicker question
For the data set displayed in the following histogram,
which would be larger, the mean or the median?

A) mean
B) median
C) can’t tell from the given histogram
(Peck, mathquest.carroll.edu/resources.html)

Clicker question
An ice cube is floating in a glass of water
that is filled entirely to the brim. As the
ice cube melts, the water level will

A) stay the same, remain at the brim.
B) rise, causing the water to spill.
C) fall to a level below the brim.
D) cannot say without knowing the density of ice.

(UBC CWSEI)

Question
If you lower a 1.5 kg mass on a string into a
5 kg beaker filled with water, what happens
to the reading on the scale?

A) increases to 6.5 kg
B) increases to a value < 6.5 kg
C) increases to a value > 6.5 kg
D) stay the same

(UBC CWSEI)

Demo: prediction
A cup filled with water has a hole in the side through which
the liquid is flowing out. If the cup is dropped for a height,
what will happen to the water flowing from the cup?

A. It will keep on coming out, flowing the same
as before

B. It will keep coming out, but it will flow a bit
slower than before

C. It will keep coming out, but start to flow
upwards

D. It will keep coming out, flowing horizontally
with the falling cup

E. It will stop flowing (Heiner)

Clicker Question
Consider a block of wood that has varying dimensions. Does
the pressure exerted on the table from the block depend on
the blocks position? If so, which way produces the greatest
pressure? If not, why not?

A) B) C)

D) The block of wood has the same density, so it doesn’t
matter which way it is positioned.
E) The block of wood has the same mass, so it doesn’t matter
which way it is positioned.
Ready, Set, React! (Heiner) 39

The molecules making up the dry mass of wood
that forms during the growth of a tree largely
come from

a) sunlight.
b) the air.
c) the seed.
d) the soil.

Question credit: Bill Wood

The figure shows a tRNA molecule that
recognizes and binds a specific amino
acid. Which codon on the mRNA strand
codes for the amino acid?

A) UGG
B) GUG
C) GUA
D) UUC
E) CAU

Question credit: Pearson Education, Inc.

Clicker Question

How many of the following statements about selection are true?

Plants: During their lifetime, plants may experience many
different sources of selection
Insects: Insects often experience a different type of
selection as larvae than as adults
Birds: Birds can experience different directions of
selection in different years
Mammals: Selection in mammals always operates more
strongly on survival than on reproduction

A) 0 B) 1 C) 2 D) 3 E) 4

Question
Suppose that in the tree below new data were
uncovered indicating that taxon E is sister to a group
consisting of taxa D and F. Draw the new phylogeny.

43
Ready, Set, React!

Which one is the closest match to yourAnswer A
– phylogeny?
a) b)

– Answer B

c) d) Some other
phylogeny
– Answer C

44
Ready, Set, React!

PO2 in the lungs is typically about 100 mm Hg, while PO2 in resting
muscles is about 40 mm Hg. Hemoglobin leaving the lungs is
nearly saturated with O2. When that fully oxygenated hemoglobin
arrives in capillaries near muscle tissue at rest, what percent of its
O2 is released?
100

O2 saturation of hemoglobin (%)
A. 10% 80
B. 15%
60
C. 30%
D. 70% 40

E. 85% 20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
P O2(mm Hg)
Question credit: Pearson Education, Inc.

Question
Which point on the phylogenetic tree represents
the closest relative of the frog?

A
B E

D
C

46
Ready, Set, React!

Question
Which experiment will produce 18O2?

Experiment 1:
H218O + CO2

A. experiment 1
B. experiment 2
Experiment 2:
C. both experiments H2O +C18O2
D. neither


Question
Fill in the blanks. All the somatic cells in your
body contain ______ DNA sequences and
______ proteins.

A. The same DNA sequences, the same proteins.
B. Different DNA sequences, different proteins.
C. The same DNA sequences, different proteins.
D. Different DNA sequences, the same proteins.

Ready, Set, credit: CWSEI, SEI
Question React! 48

Suppose a plant has a photosynthetic pigment that
makes the leaves appear to be reddish yellow. Which
wavelengths of visible light are being absorbed by
this pigment?

A) red and yellow
B) blue and violet
C) green and yellow
D) blue, green, and red
E) green, blue, and yellow

49
Ready, Set, React!

Question
One of the somatic (i.e., not gametes) cells
represented below is diploid. Which one?

A. B.

C.

Question credit: Carol Pollock

Question
If an organism makes an abnormal protein, the
error that led to this abnormality most likely
originated

A. during the replication of the corresponding
gene
B. during transcription of the corresponding gene
to make the corresponding mRNA
C. during translation of the corresponding mRNA
to make the protein

Question credit: CWSEI, SEI

Clicker Question

Draw a cell’s plasma membrane using circles and lines
to represent the two “ends” of the phospholipids that
comprise the membrane. Indicate the inside and
outside of the cell with respect to the membrane.

example phospholipid

Which of the following illustrations looks most
like your own drawing?

A. Outside
of cell
Inside
of cell C. Outside
of cell
Inside
of cell

B. Outside
of cell
Inside
of cell
D. Outside
of cell
Inside
of cell

E. My drawing looks different

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