The effectiveness of student-led demonstrations in a high school physics class

During the 2001–2002 school year, the students in the physics class at Mio AuSable High School prepared and performed demonstrations for their fellow students on eleven physics topics: fluid mechanics, thermal energy, wave properties, sound, reflection, electrostatics, dc circuits, Newton's Laws, force components, circular motion and rotational motion. Data were collected using predetermined pretest and posttest questions to measure the effectiveness of using demonstrations in this way. Improvement was also studied using a student opinion survey and collections of student responses to test questions.; The data showed considerable improvement by the students in the eleven topic areas on the posttest compared to the pretest. The data were also examined to compare the scores of the students who performed the demonstrations to those of students who observed the demonstrations. The data showed that the presenters typically performed better on the posttest than the observers.