Toolbox of activities to support students in a physics gateway course

Abstract

This paper presents a set of activities, which scaffolds students to succeed in the standard Physics gateway course. The set of instructional activities that were designed included four distinct components: reflective writing, collaborative groups, critiques, and an essay question on the examination. Each activity was designed to lead into and connect with the other activities, with the intention that students would establish links between different parts of the course. Implementation was studied at three postsecondary institutions. The results demonstrate that the combination of instructional activities were successful in scaffolding the students and getting them to view the course in a holistic manner. © 2010 The American Physical Society.