Interactive Learning in a Multidisciplinary First-Year Course

Recent experience with both multidisciplinary courses and course presentation based on interactive learning techniques has shown these to be effective. However, abandoning the lecture-recitation format poses special difficulties in a multidisciplinary course taught by faculty from different departments. Major potential problems include maintaining consistency in course material from section to section in multisection courses, and organizing the material so it can be presented by faculty teaching outside their area of expertise. We will present results of a one-year pilot program in which we have adopted the interactive format in the presentation of our introductory course sequence in Chemistry of Materials. We will discuss course content, student performance, student satisfaction with the course, and the faculty experience compared to the traditional course. In addition, the in-class demonstrations and team-oriented student exercises developed will be reviewed.