Lecture 18

1. Lecture 18 • You will get clicker participation credit this week • Give you a chance to get points • CAPE: Email link in your UCSD email account • Very, very, very important – please take the time to complete! • Don’t Forget: • Tech and Society #3 is due Thursday 11:59pm

2. Final Exam: Cumulative • Practice Final • Compendium of clicker questions • Up Friday • Take Home Final: 1 hour (estimated) 10% • Linked from moodle, delivered via survey monkey (Avail Thurs) • Reflective Essays • How has this course changed you? (comparisons with other pilots) • Reflection on Course Components (labs, homeworks, etc.) • INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT and graded for “thoughtful” answers • In Class Final: Friday 3-5pm in this room 90% • We will seat you randomly • Bring a red scantron sheet (like midterm) • Multiple choice and open-ended • Code writing! What?

4. (and more – see sample exam)

5. We can create lists of “related” things and loop over them using the index

6. Counted Loop: The Advanced Version • We want to loop over three things: • But we need access to the “index” of our counted loop (click show complicated) • index (a number) will have the values: 0 first time through loop1 second time through loop2 third time through loop

7. So which code will make create our “Budweiser commercial”?

8. To calculate A3= VLOOKUP(B3,classList!A$1:B$572,2,TRUE) For all items_in_classList_ColA one at a time If item_in_classList_ColA == midterm!B3 midterm!A3’s value is classList!B(index) else Do Nothing

9. How People Learn:Making the most of your years at UCSD • LSOE – faculty specializing in education • Computer Science Education • Developing new curriculum to teach high school teachers to teach this course as an AP course • Faculty • Generally not ever taught “how to teach” • Much NEW research on how people learn • Biology • Educational Psychology (studies of experts, etc.) • Often, not yet “adopted” in classrooms

10. How People Learn:Making the most of your years at UCSD • LPSOE – faculty specializing in education • Computer Science Education • Developing new curriculum to teach high school teachers to teach this course as an AP course • Faculty • Generally not ever taught “how to teach” • Much NEW research on how people learn • Biology • Educational Psychology (studies of experts, etc.) • Often, not yet “adopted” in classrooms So how can this help you?

11. Forget What you Know about Study Habits* • Share CORE findings about how people learn • Identify ways in which this class supported this kind of learning • Talk about how you can leverage this information in the future to • Reduce your study time • Increase your studying effectiveness • Get more, deeper understanding that will serve you your whole life • Become a “life long learner” * New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html

12. The Basis:Constructivism • People aren’t an empty vessel which a “teacher” fills up • All new learning is based in pre-existing understanding you have • You store things in long term memory through a set of connections that aremade with previous existingmemories. • “Creating memories” (aka learning) involves havingneurons fire (and neurons link up in networks or patterns)

13. That’s Nice: What Does it Mean for MY Studying?

14. Spaced Out Studying Is More Efficient:Better connections: “restarting”, freshness Hours required to learn(a fixed task) Cramming all at once requires more time (42%)! Roediger, Karpicke, The Power of Testing Memory: Basic Research and Implications for Educational Practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, Sept 2010

15. Our Course Design: Spaced Learning over 12-15 days • 5 “point awarded” learning sessions per week • But… Lecture Lecture Homework Exam Lab QUIZ QUIZ Further Study Homework Further Study

16. Maybe you… • Often did your homework for a lecture spread over multiple sessions (e.g. not all at once) • Prepared for lab before lab • Worked on lab after lab • Reviewed lecture materials after class • Often skipped homework… 

17. In a “normal” week how many different “learning sessions” did you have? • 3 or less • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 or more

18. Studying in Different Locations and Contexts Increases Learning:More connections with different things • Study same 40 words, twice • In different rooms • In same room

19. In this class, we expect you learn in at least three environments each week: • Lecture Hall • Lab Space • Someplace else (your room? Library desk?)

20. How many actual learning environments do you make use of in a typical week? • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • More than 6

21. Testing Yourself Repeatedly is Very Beneficial:Effort to “test” builds STRONG connections 80% improvement! 60 pictures Short answer, list “test” Tests immediately after then 1 minute apart Final Test: 1 week later

22. Testing is Better than “Reviewing”(Effortful Retrieval)If you care about long-term… Read Passage (“the Sun” or “Sea Otters”) Either --7 min test (recall as much as can) --study: re-read again Final Test -- 5min later --2 days later --1 week later Benefits of Testing Memory: Best Practices and Boundary Conditions,Roedinger, Agarwal, Kang, pre-publication copy.

23. In this class we expect you test yourself with 2 quizzes a week and a large number of clicker questions • However, just “guessing” or not thinking hard • Doesn’t help make connections strongly • The more “effortful” testing is, the greater benefit is has on learning • Learning involves building proteins and neural connections – biological change • Like going to the gym • Lift 10 pounds for 30 minutes, casually jog 30 minutes • Lift progressively, Run with intervals • If it doesn’t hurt, you probably • Aren’t getting it • Are learning less efficiently than you could

24. Doing clicker questions with discussion “effortfully” is hard. In a normal lecture, what percent of the time did your group discuss with “effort” to try to understand deeply? • Almost never • Less than half the time • About half the time • More than half the time • Almost all the time

25. Said about my class… • “If everyone taught like that, our students would be exhausted!” I know I ask a lot – but I hope to develop in you valuable understanding that lasts far beyond the exam

26. Short answer versus Multiple Choice • Short Answer => More Effort => More Remembering • AH! But only if you “do well” • OR Get feedback • Find out the right answer (corrective feedback) • BETTER: Explanatory feedback • Correct answer and explanation! • Even IF you got it right! • To avoid remembering “distractors” • Focus on explanation

27. Why “Voting” in class? • You read • Clicker questions get you to test (before the “final test”) • Get you to recall effortfully • Try yourself • Discuss with others • Points for “clicking in” and committing yourself • Provide you explanatory feedback • Via discussion with others • Discussing right and WRONG answers together • Give you a resource to “re-test” • 3 times was better than 1!

28. People who “get the most” out of in class voting: • Prepare before • Put in effort to answer question • Discuss, paying special attention to explanations • Review clicker questions after class • By “re-testing” – not just “re-reading”

29. What can you do to be a more effective learner in “standard” classes? • Visit the material multiple times • A bit each day will lead to a lot less TIME overall • Visit the material in multiple locations/ways • Study in different places • Study with other people • Read, discuss, listen (and self question) in lecture, draw, do sample exams, write down your questions • Study HARD, not long • Test yourself, rather than passively review • Do “list” and “open ended” questions rather than multiple choice (if you can somehow check they are right)

30. Focus on Connections: • Always ask • How does this fit into what I already know? • Why do I want to know it? • In what situations will I use it? • How does this relate to other things in this discipline?